Shepard's Children
by M4ss3ff3ctf4n
Summary: This is the full detail of what happened after the Reaper War. For Shepard and Tali'Zorah and Shepard's uncle (Ragan which is the OC) and Shala'Raan vas Rannoch (Geth peace was given). This story is rated M by FanFiction but it is really rated MA by my rating. Readers are advised.
1. Prologue

**Author's note: All reviews are behind a chapter as the number they are not. Since this was added, this means the reviews should be one chapter up but instead of having a chapter like this. (Example: Chapter 14 review is now a chapter 15 review). This is only because of today as this chapter has been added and all chapter reviews from November 5 and before then are off. Please remember that.**

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><p>Prologue<p>

What was required to this story:

Geth and Quarian Peace (Paragon Charm way)

Genophage cured (Mordin's death and never accepted the deal from the dalatrass (Hate that bitch))

Thane dies trying to save the Salarian Councillor (Hate that part because Thane is awesome)

Wrex survives Virmire

Ashley dies at Virmire

Rachni Queen was saved in ME1 and ME3

Council was saved

Collector Base was destroyed and Cerberus ties were cut

Everyone survives in ME2 that is part of the squad.

Half of the crew is killed by the Collectors (Didn't like Rupert anyway)

Vido was killed

Batarian colony was warned and mass relay was destroyed

Shadow Broker is killed by Commander Shepard and Liara T'Soni

Reapers were destroyed

Illusive Man committed suicide

Maelon's work was saved

Thresher Maw was killed in Grunt's loyalty mission (Gruth: Rite of Passage)

EMS (Effective Military Strength) was over 4000 (and chose destroy because Shepard lives (only good ending but not the best one because it was still false advertised))

Had the Galactic Readiness at 100%

Did all the side missions in ME, ME2, and ME3

Save David Archer from Project Overlord

Destroyed the Kasumi's Graybox

Had Dr. Archer (during the mission of rescuing the scientists) not commit suicide

Chose Anderson as first Human Councillor

Had the Hanar diplomat killed and had the homeworld Kajhe saved

Had 'Dr. Heart' killed by Garrus

Sidonus survives Garrus' loyalty mission (Garrus: Eye for an Eye)

Had Captain Taylor commit suicide during Jacob's loyalty mission (Jacob: The Gift of Greatness)

Had Balak survive in ME and ME3 (need as much to get the war won)

Shepard is a colonist, mixed between Renegade and Paragon (mainly Renegade), and Ruthless, Infiltrator (ME class), Engineer (ME2 class) and back to Infiltrator (ME3 class).

Didn't romance with anyone in ME. Romance with Tali (of course her because this is for her and Shepard) in ME2 and ME3 (I wish they allowed me to romanced with Tali in ME)

Tali was not exiled in her loyalty mission (Tali: Treason)

Legion was brought during Tali's recruitment mission and loyalty mission. Also brought to the Council (meaning didn't sell him)

Had Grunt out of the tank after Okeer's death

Upgraded the Normandy to full capabilities

Allowed Rana Thanoptis to survive Virmire

Udina is killed and Kaidan lives

Maelon was killed (Betrayed someone and avoided the facts (Wrex was clan leader at the time), had to be done)


	2. Chapter 1: The Discovery

**Author's notes: Thank you kill-phil for giving me a list of what needs to be fixed. I added more to this because I care about the readers. Leave a review if you like and I will see if I can do anything that is good for this.**

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><p>Chapter One: Discovery<p>

As the 'sun' - what is was was really a glass orb with fifteen million LED lights - goes down, John is sitting down in his in his chair that is in his apartment on the Citadel. He looks up at the clock and sees that the time is past midnight. He didn't want to do anything but to relax with Tali'Zorah vas Normandy. His eyes start to shut but are stopped when a knock is heard at the door. The knock sounded like it was someone with a gun. He looks at the clock above the TV and then sighs. He gets up from his chair and opens the door to reveal a Salarian that is happy. John just looks up at the Salarian and motions him in. "Can I help you? You do realize that I have the right to kill you for trespassing on my property this late."

The Salarian looks at the clock and then sees John get back in his chair. "Yes, I do realize that. And I'm sorry if I'm bothering you, even though you bought the whole complex for a permanent stay for your travels when you are on the Citadel and the top parts are not allowed to be accessed by anyone other than you and others. Got that from the person that was on the help desk. Sorry for this sir. I was contacted by one of my former STG contact - more like a VI - to find you. Do you remember a professor named Mordin Solus?" John nods his head. "Okay then. I have some information for you and your 'wife' - or what it really is bondmate - because he was working on something for both of you before he died." He then sits down on the couch. "It was for both of you and she might be pleased to hear this. Well both of you. You have to understand that."

John nods in agreement. "I do understand and I will get Tali down here. If you can just -"

"Wait here. Of course. I will not do anything that can harm your reputation like going to destroy anything with my M-12 Locus. You did fight with Eclipse mercs, and ever since some Salarians joined then, it was bad for us. Getting slandered. After all, you saved us with the Krogan support and they helped us with a new coming way by taking our soldiers and all to the refugee camps," he sighed. "I will allow some of them to understand but enough of that. I think you were going to get Tali."

John travels up the the stairs and enters the main bedroom. He opens the door and sees Tali is sleeping. He goes up to her and gently shakes her and starts whispering, "Tali, there is a Salarian here for us. He wants to talk to us."

Tali moves her body and faces John. She was not in her mask because of the decontamination unit they had installed in their apartment main room. She then yawns and wraps her arms around John's neck. "Okay. I'll be down soon."

John walks to the door and then stops to take a breath. He then walks up to the stairs and sees the Salarian is still sitting down where he last saw him. He then looks at the ceiling and starts to pray to himself. He doesn't know if something is about to go wrong because crime on the Citadel never decreased after William H. Ford was elected to be ambassador after he 'told' about making crime go down but it never happened. He then walks down the stairs and then sees the Salarian looking at him. "I see you are obeying your word," John sighed, the Salarian nods. "She will be down soon. I... just hope that it is good news."

The Salarian smiled at John, "It is good news. I hope we can come to an understatement about this."

Tali walks down the stairs and stares heading towards John. "Okay, so what is the news," they both asked the Salarian.

"First, introduction. My name is Tilsur Saleon," He gets up and shakes both Tali and John's hands, "Commander, I believe that you and a certain Turian, named Garrus Vakarian, stopped my brother that went by the name of Doctor Heart years ago. Anyway, I hear to tell you that Professor Mordin Solus was working on something that would help you. He was working on certain types of pills for you so that Tali can get pregnant. This was easily obtained but sadly that work was incomplete due to Mordin's death at the Shroud. I understand that this is hard for you to understand but I want you to know that I want you to be happy. I want you to have children. I mean, who wouldn't love children from the DNA of both parents instead of adopting. It makes the connection better. I even wrote a book about that, called 'Seeing the Ways of Parents and Children Eyes.' So after we found the notes, we made modifications to the pills. And did some tests."

Tali and John look at Tilsur and thought there was more. "And the test results, Saelon. I wanted to know before I give my wife the pills."

"Of course. I just was glad to announce that the results came in a positive manner. So she can now get pregnant. I did the quick tests and found that there are no side effects except for one minor thing. The pill will cause a random minor disease and it will affect Tali. But other than that, everything is good. Mordin had his notes encrypted and wanted to atone for what happened after the Genophage modification. He also said, in his notes that is, that there was nothing else to be done. He had this in his notes and I will quote it for you, 'I want to have the two lovers that are doomed to died to have a chance of hope so they can live forever. No matter way, I will work on this so they can be happy. Had to be me, otherwise, someone else might have gotten it wrong.' He had about ninety-eight percent complete."

John looks at Tilsur with a suspicious look and then comes out with the question, "Why are you doing this? What do you think you can gain from this?"

"Gain," he asked then started laughing for a few seconds, "There is nothing for me to gain. Like I said, I want to have Professor Solus' work complete so he - as you Humans would say - rest easily in the grave. I'm doing this because I knew the Professor personaly. He was a good friend. I miss him, but enough of that. The true reason why I'm doing this is so that I can help you after you saved us from the Reaper Invasion. Glad it was you otherwise, all dead."

"Okay, what else is there?"

"Nothing else. I will let you talk to each other about this," he goes back to the couch and sits down.

Tali looks at John with wide eyes. "John, I'm not even sure. I know we talked about adopting but this is different. I don't..."

John stopped her and gave her a light kiss on the cheek. "Tali, darling. I do anything to make you happy. And if you want a child with our DNA, then I will do anything to have it happen."

"I don't know what to say John. We talked about a family sure, but this is new to us. I don't even know..."

John looks at Tilsur and sighs. "So what is the instructions."

"Quite simple. Both take a pill - Dextro and Levo. After that, wait five minutes then have sex. After nine months, she will give birth. It may take more than one because this is new. The packages I will be giving you will have fifteen pill for each user. And when your child is old enough, they can have children without taking the pills that I'm giving you," he said while handing the pills to John. "I will also give my information in case you run out of pills or something happened that I may need to know. But so far, nothing is wrong. And you will have a good life." Tilsur walks to the door and leaves.

Tali looks at John with open eyes and then takes a short deep breath. She didn't know what to do but she wanted to have some children of her own so that John can be happy. She didn't want to see him be depressed like the time that he lost his mother from the assassin. He would argue and raise his voice at her but that was understandable because he watched his mother get killed right in front of him. Tali saw the whole thing also. It was dreadful. She wish she didn't see John's face when everything was in chaos.

"Tali, I want you to know that I want you to be happy. Please give me a chance to have a life and a family with you. I will do it for you because I care about you. Please at least give me a chance but on Rannoch. I want to be happy there with you and I made a certain promise to a certain Quarian wife of mine."

Tali blushed and looked up at John. "You know what to say. Thank you for this." She then looks at the clock and sighs. "I guess we need to find a shuttle to take us to the nearest ship that is en route to Rannoch."

"And I will be glad to find that ship for you." He walks out of the apartment and starts walking away to Docking Bay D-24.

The next morning, Tali comes up and finds her suit is hanging on the hook inside a closet. She grabs it and looks to see John is packing his clothing in a small duffle bag that is tan colored. She lets out a sigh. "To Rannoch. I hope we will make it safely."

John grabs his gun and looks at her. "I'm sure we will be there safely. After all, all the items that are needed will be with us. I got us booked to leave on the Normandy. I hope you will like that." John grabs the bags and walks out of the front door exiting the apartment. He then walks towards the elevator and then waits for it to come up after hearing a beep from it, signalling it was coming up towards his position. The doors opened and Garrus is seen looking at John. Shaking his head, he gets in and gently push his Turian friend over and waits for Tali to come in. After a few seconds, the see her coming. John notices the doors are about to close and quickly presses the delay button so that Tali can come in. She gets in, and John presses the close doors button.


	3. Chapter 2: The Big News

Chapter 2: The Big News

John looks outside of the _Normandy's_ windows and sees Rannoch is coming up. He then had to force a smile that made him happy for this and didn't want to make anyone sad, especially Tali. He knew that the Geth and the Quarians were in his debt because he helped them survive the war of each other by offering peace. He then remembered the day that the Reaper spoke to him before he departed to the _Normandy_ after making peace.

**Rannoch, Six months ago**

_John looks at the desert climate and sees the Reaper is laying on its side. The wind is hollowing over the metal that made the Reaper. The 'eye' of the Reaper opens up and it starts looking at John. He quickly grabs his weapon and aims it at the Reaper. He wasn't sure what is going to happen. But something seemed off. He didn't know what to do. It just looked at him but then he heard something. In his mind, he thought it was Sovereign or Harbinger but then he looks at the Reaper. It was speaking to him._

_**"SHEPARD, HARBINGER SPEAKS WELL OF YOU."**__ There was a pause. "__**WE KNOW WHAT THIS CYCLE HOLDS AND IT MUST END. EVEN FOR THE GREAT COMMANDER JOHN RYU SHEPARD."**_

_John was confused at the time. He only heard two Reapers talk to him and that was when he was chasing Saren on Ilos and when he had to destroy the Balah System. was the Reaper that talked to him and he didn't like the way it spoke. "You know who I am?"_

**_"LIKE I SAID, HARBINGER SPEAKS WELL OF YOU. BUT YOU ARE PLAYING WITH FORCES YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND. YOU REPRESENT CHAOS, WHILE WE ARE ORDER. WE ARE YOUR SALVATION. EVERY SPECIES MUST BE HARVESTED SO THE NEXT CYCLE CAN LIVE ON."_**

_John shakes his head. "I don't think so. It's time that the organics take control of this. You have no power anymore. Look at you, lying down on the ground after a few attacks. I thought you were tougher than this. But it seems you are not. And we may surprised you. I defeated two Reapers. Sovereign and another on Tuchanka."_

_**"YOU MAY HAVE DEFEAT SOVEREIGN AND TITAN; THE ONE THAT WAS ON TUCHANKA; BUT YOU WILL NEVER DEFEAT US. YOU CAN'T DEFEAT THE ENEMY THAT IS HERE FOR MORE THAN EIGHT MILLION YEARS. IF YOU WOULD JUST LAY DOWN AND DIE, THEN YOU WOULD UNDERSTAND IT. BUT YOU WON'T, BECAUSE YOU ONLY CARE ABOUT THIS. HAVING US DESTROYED DOES NOTHING BUT UPSET THE BALANCE. AND WE ARE HERE TO HARVEST YOU ALL. TEN BILLION WILL DIE OVER HERE SO THAT YOU CAN SAVE TWENTY BILLION IS TO BE PROVEN TO BE FALSE AND INCORRECT BY ALL MEANS. YOUR SOUL AND REDEMPTION IS TO END WITH ALL THE PEOPLE. YOU CAN'T WIN THIS WAR BECAUSE THE FAVOR IS NOT IN YOUR HANDS. WE DO NOT MEAN TO BE AT WAR WHEN WE ARE HERE. WE DO NOT INTEND TO GO TO WAR. WHEN WE ARE HERE, WE DO OUR JOB. WHEN FIRE IS BURN IT IS IN CONFLICT, IS IT AT WAR, OR IS IT DOING WHAT IT IS MEANT TO DO."**_

_John shakes his head and opens his mouth, "And your logic is wrong. Fire doesn't have a mind of its own. When it's not living. You're just fucking machines that need to be destroyed. I'll say this one time: Fire is nothing when you talk about it because you have no way of knowing."_

_**"YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND BECAUSE YOUR MIND IS MADE UP OF LIES. EVERYTHING THAT YOU WERE TAUGHT MAKES NO SENSE OF WHAT WE ARE TELLING YOU. YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LIVE FOR AND NOTHING ELSE MATTERS. YOUR LIFE WILL BE DESTROYED IF YOU FAIL..."**  
><em>

_John just looks at the Reaper and interrupts it. "What do you mean?" He was uncertain of what is to be said._

**_"YOU WAYS OF POWER AND INTELLIGENCE IS PATHETICALLY LIMITED. WE HAVE TO HAVE THE CYCLE GO ON. WITHOUT IT, ALL ORGANICS ARE DOOMED. WE ARE TO PROTECT THE ORGANICS WITH ANYTHING THAT MUST BE WITH THE SYNTHETICS. WE HARVEST TO PRESERVE LIFE AND MAKE A NEW WAY OF LIFE FOR THOSE WHO ARE NOT HARVESTED. WE DO THIS BECAUSE IT IS THE ONLY THING WE DO. SYNTHESIS WILL RAGE WAR ON THE ORGANICS AND WE ARE THE SOLUTION TO MAKE SURE THAT NEVER HAPPENS. JUST LOOK AT THE GETH AND THE QUARIANS. THE QUARIANS MADE THE GETH THREE HUNDRED YEARS AGO AND THE GETH REBELLED. THE CREATED WILL ALWAYS REBEL AGAINST THE CREATORS, IT IS INEVITABLE."_**

_"I don't care what you have to say. And I can still offer peace to the Geth and the Quarians. I need them to defeat your sorry metal asses for what you are doing to every single civilization. You will be nothing if we have a full army against you because there are millions that are fighting you right now and we will win. The organics and any other race that joins us will win because we have a weapon that can destroy you that you can't destroy."_

_**"YOU MAY BE LIKE THAT FOR NOW BUT THE POWERS OF DARKNESS WILL COME IN AND DESTROY YOUR LIFE BEFORE YOU USE THE WEAPON. AND SOON YOU WILL BE KILLED. ALL THE LOVED ONES THAT HELPED YOU WILL DIE BECAUSE OF YOUR ACTIONS. ORGANICS ARE THE WEEDS OF THIS GALAXY. WE ARE HERE TO END THIS AND WE WILL DO SO, EVEN IF WE HAVE TO DIE."**_

_"Tell your friends," John grabs the sync laser Xen made that is wired to the Normandy and the entire Quarian Fleet, "That we are coming." As he pulled the trigger, the Reaper looks up and sees three missiles coming down towards it's 'eye'. After a sudden explosion by the missiles, John takes his helmet off and looks at the Reaper, "On second thought, I'll tell them myself."_

**NOW**

As he walked to the elevator and pressed 1 for the Captain's Quarters, he noticed Tali is pacing up and down the hallway between the bridge and the CIC. He then pressed the delay button and walked up to Tali. "Tali, what's wrong?"

She was silent like the _Normandy's_ engine. She didn't know what to say. "I just don't know what to do. I mean, you are going to make a house but I don't know what else we are going to do. Except have children."

"Tali, I don't want to have no more than three girls and three boys. That's all I want. And I'll be glad when I have that many because that will show you that I have love. Not towards them but towards you because you are my wife and I want you to be happy... Shit, I should have thought of that before I said anything. But if you want children, we need to have a plan in action otherwise what else might there before we do anything. I retired from the Alliance after they told me they had enough of me. I don't blame them because I just saved the galaxy three times."

"I know what you want but it is hard to do that for you John. I don't know what can do. I hope you have a plan to tell my auntie about this. Other wise, there will be hell."

"I plan to tell her. Because I care about you. And she might want to know because by the looks of things, we're going to need a lot of good scientists to help with Rannoch."

As the Normandy made contact to the spaceport, Tali is walking to the bridge and sits down on the floor. Joker sees her and turns his chair to face her. "Yeah, Tali. What's going on?"

"Just think, Joker. I need to think about something."

"Sure, you have all the time you want to think."

After a few hours, and during the shuttle ride, Shala'Raan vas Tonbay was going through her items and didn't say a word. But she saw how John was trying to stay still but she sense that he had something to say. She let out a big sigh and asked, "Shepard, you have something on your mind; why don't you tell me about it?"

John just tried to ignore it but he wanted to tell her, so he just opened his mouth but no words came out. He looks at Tali, who gave him a nod. "Raan, we were contacted by a Salarian named Tilsur Saleon. He was working on something of a friend of ours. Mordin Solus was working on a special way to have me and Tali to have children. But before he could finish it, he died. Luckily Tilsur found a way to finish the project and did serious amount of test. Now we can have children through sexual relation. I was thinking you might need him for something about the agriculture."

Raan looked at Tali and gave a big smile. "I'm glad to hear that. And I might need his mind to help get Rannoch back on it's feet after the Geth-Quarian War. Give me the information and I will see if I can get him here to help us."

"I hope so, I explained to Tali that this Tilsur would make an excellent personal to have to make the flotilla and other parts of the planet more habitable."

"Of course Commander. I understand what you mean. I will interview him when I have a chance. I'm sure you didn't interview him when you were talking to him." Raan let a sigh out when she heard about the scientist.

"No, I didn't. I was leaving that to you, so you can bring it to the Admiralty board. But enough of that. I need to know what the house is like," John put a smile and looked at Tali. He grabs her hand gently and starts rubbing her palm with his index finger. He does this when he is nervous.

"The house you have the plans for hs been built for you. Well... the lower parts. Not the second, third, and fourth floor."

"Fourth floor? I didn't have a fourth floor. I had only three floors with a underground gym."

"Oh... I'm sorry but I didn't know about that. Okay. I'll tell them to work on the gym last and notify them that the gym is to be underground. Sorry for that Commander. Thank you for clearing that up."

Tali looks at John and gives a sigh to him. "What? You know I like to stay fit, Tali."

"I know you do and I don't mean to be judgmental about it."


	4. Chapter 3: It's Time for a Family

Chapter 3: It's Time to have a family

John gets up from his chair and walks to the shower. He then looks at the mirror and sees he had to shave the beard because Tali hates beards. He turns the water on and starts getting undressed.

Tali is down stairs and thinking to herself. She then walks to the stairs and starts climbing them. As she got to their room, she went to her dresser and started looking for the pills. After a few minutes of searching, she find them and takes them out. She then places the Levo-DNA pill in her pocket and sits down on the bed; waiting for John to come out. After a brutal of five minutes, John comes out and sees Tali laid on the bed. She then looks at him. She gets up and reaches in her pocket to get the pill. As she is doing this, they do a passionate kiss. She finally break away and hands him his pill. "I think it is time for use to do this."

They swallow their pills and then laid down on the bed. After they do that, then they started to get ready for the fun part. John unbuttons Tali's hood and then starts unsealing the suit. After a few minutes of doing so, her suit comes completely off, showing her naked. John then gently pushes her to the bed and then starts kissing her from her stomach area up to the top of her face. Slowly but it was the best thing to do. After doing so, she then looks at his green eyes, and she starts kissing his face.

John lifts his arms up so that Tali can take his shirt off and then she unstraps the belt. As she is doing that, takes his pants off and rolls him over to the other side. Forcing him to be under her. He takes his underwear and socks off.

"Fuck me, John Ryu Shepard. Do it," she said. John then puts a smile on her and starts working his way up with his licks. He gently licks her breasts and then starts working down to her vagina. When he gets to her vagina, he licks the outer part; which made Tali squeal. He then starts placing his hands around Tali's waists as he quickly turns her over making him be on top.

"Having fun there, beautiful," he ask. He wasn't sure if she was having a good time.

"I am, John. Thanks for asking." She then wraps her legs around his hips and starts kissing him. "You know, I'll be glad when we have a child."

"I... know... what... you... mean...," he says while breaking out of the kiss several times to speak. "I want to be happy with you and I will be happy with you no matter what."

**Five Months Later**

John walks from the gym and heads out to the front door. The door is swung open and Admiral Raan comes in. "Shepard. Tali is at the hospital. She is getting some test done right now."

John can only think of one thing, but he mentally shoved that thought out of his mind. "Is she getting test for the child." Raan nods her head three times. "Okay. Did she want me to be with her or to stay here?"

"She said that it would be wise for you to go to her. She told me everything and she wants you to know. I suggest you go. I have three Geth Primes and a Juggernaut outside that will keep the house safe. I have to do this because the Admiralty Board has request you to be protected at all times. And the Geth Ambassador, Leonardo, has request that you are under the protection of both Geth and Quarian but the Geth are the ones that will be doing the protecting."

"Thank you Raan. I will get there quickly. Which hospital is she at?"

"Commander Shepard? She is at the hospital that is named after you of course. Have you forgotten?"

"I have and I was working out. I was about to take a 10k run until you came here. But Tali is more important than my workout." He sighs. "I will do whatever to help her." John leaves the house and finds a Geth unit is painting the skycar. He looks at the Geth unit and taps its shoulder. "I need you to make sure the house is safe. I need this done Raphael."

Raphael looks at him and nods its 'head', "Of course, Shepard-Commander. Anything else you want to assign before you leave and I have to start working?"

"No," he sighs. He motions the Raphael to move out of the way and Raphael does what he was motioned to do. After that, John gets in the skycar and drives to Commander J.R. Shepard Memorial Hospital. He liked the name but he didn't want to have it named after him because all he did was give them a home-world that anyone can do at anytime. He get to the hospital in 15 minutes. He gets out of the skycar and walks through the door and finds the help desk. "Excuse me, I need to see where my wife is at. Tali'Shepard vas Rannoch."

The nurse starts typing in the name and finds Tali's name. "Yes sir, she is on the second floor, room 50A. She was waiting for the results of her test."

John nods at her and moves to the elevator. He press the up button and waits for it to come. When the doors opened, he walked in and press 2 for second floor. The door closes and the elevator moves up very slowly. When the doors opened the final time, he walks out and starts scanning the wall panels to see if where room 50A is at. He finds it and heads to the hallway that is on his right side. After a little walk, he finds the door is barely cracked. He hears a voice but can't make out who it is.

"I've got your results ma'am. You are indeed pregnant. I don't understand how you got pregnant by a Human. I though it was impossible."

Tali sighed, "We had a friend that was working on some medications. But it was incomplete due to his death. But someone named Tilsur Saelon found the notes and started working on the formula. Then a few months ago, he came by our apartment when we were at the Citadel and gave us the medication."

"I see, so this friend of yours was a good friend," John enters the room to see the doctor was talking to Tali. "All I know is that if the medication worked to get you pregnant then the child may survive. I don't want you to suffer because of some side effect of medication. I will see if I can have someone find this medication formula and see if we can produce more."

John coughed to get the doctor's attention. "I was checking on my wife. How is she and the test results better be good."

"Of course. Commander John Ryu Shepard, pleasure to meet you in the flesh. Name is Fuil'Ridla vas Rannoch nar Qwib-Qwib. I was going to go over the results. The only thing that I have gone over is that she is in fact pregnant with a child. The child will be health if she follows the diet due to two different species that were not to mate but due medication. I will also try to advise that the child or shall I say children, have a balanced meal of iron because the children have not the required iron."

"What first you said child but then you said children. Why?"

"She is having triplets, and I'm shocked and be damned if this didn't happened sooner. The person that made this medication for you should have made it before the Reaper War," he sighs, "But then again, it would take years for the medication to be tested with the required amount of time that is needed."

"Okay, do you how what the genders are, my wife and I would like to know."

"So far it is unknown to tell. We have to see in about two more months to see that happens," he hands John the data pad. "She will be alright. I promise that."

"I'm holding you to that. She held me to a promise to build her a home. And I'm sure as well kept that promise." Fuil walks out of the room and orders them to be released.


	5. Chapter 4: The Triplets part 1

Chapter 4: The Triplets part 1

John is working out on in his gym by doing pull ups. He hears something but it doesn't sound right. He stops and hears a moan. He gets down from the bars and starts search until he finds Tali on the floor crying. "Tali! What's wrong, baby?"

Tali could hardly do anything, let alone speak. "They're coming, John. They are coming." He then looks at John who gets his omni-tool and messages Raan. She gets up but it is hard for her to do so. John grabs her and takes her to the skycar and then gets the engine ready. As the engine is getting warmed up, Raan is heard.

"John, what is? Something wrong?" The holo of Raan made her look worried, even though she had a her visor on.

"Tali and I are going to the hospital. They are coming. I repeat: They are coming," he tries to hold his emotions but it is hard for he to do so.

"Dear, Ancestors. I'll meet you there. I'll see if Rael will be -"

"Sorry but I don't want that ego-maniac around my children. And I don't need him around me when he hates me," he looks at Raphael and throws the keys to him. "Right, now I'm getting someone to keep the house safe. I'll be at the hospital in 15 minutes."

"Understood, John."

"Shepard-Commander. Does this unit need to make sure the house is safe," Raphael asked with some concern. "Because we believe that this house will be alright until you come back."

"I don't want to argue. Just keep the house safe," he starts driving to the hospital. On route to the hospital, a Quarian militia stopped him. He didn't have time for this.

"Sir, do you realize how fast -"

"I know but right now, I need to get to the hospital. My wife is going into labor."

"Okay, people," the leader of the militia said to the others. "Emergency transportation. Lets go." Five of the militia's vehicles got in front of John's skycar and started driving. He followed them while there were five more skycars behind him. The sirens were on and there were no civilians in the area. They got to the hospital in 10 minutes. "Sir, we will get her there okay." John nod his head, the leader then signaled two of his troops to take Tali to the hospital and get her ready. Those two men did what they were signaled to do. "Sir, I need to know what your name is so I can file a report that this is an emergence transportation."

"Johnathan Ryu Shepard," John said with some sadness in his voice.

"Commander Shepard. The first Human Spectre. Very will sir, you may enter."

"Thank you...," he couldn't finish the sentence because he didn't know the name of the woman.

"Killa'Nima vas Rannoch," the woman said. She then gets to her skycar and waits for the other people to come. The two men that took Tali were coming back and stopped where John was at.

"Sir, your wife is safe and secured," they both said at the same time.

"Thank you," John was grateful for that.

Raan was there already, she was pacing when the two men putting Tali on the gurney. And when the two men put Tali on the gurney, she was pacing until her legs grew numb. She looks up and sees John coming up; immediately she comes up and hugs him. Rael was there and he was mad.

"John, so glad you got her. I don't know what could have happened if they didn't helped you," Raan looked at Rael with vicious eyes. "And you want to punish him for something like this. Not on my watch you bosh'tet."

"They made have gotten her here quickly but I don't like it that a Human is married to my daughter. I do not agree with this. I am requesting they have those children killed."

John got right to Rael's face and shook his head. "Do that, then I will kill you myself. And I will make damn fucking certain that your body is destroyed so badly that there will be nothing to bury. You worth less asshole. So I suggest that you leave my children alone or we will have on fight here and your death will happen," John yelled at Rael, making him lose his balance. "DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?!"

Rael looked at Raan, "No wonder why people obey him. He is forceful when it come to command." Rael then looked at John and shook his head. "Then you might as well have me killed because I'm not having my daughter bringing some hybrid that is part human. I wouldn't allow you to here if I was the leader. Oh... wait... I am the leader of the Admiralty board and I say you are exiled."

"And I will make damn certain that you are killed if you touch one of my children. I'm going to warn you and you better listen because this is your last fucking warning: Touch them, you die. Have them killed, you die. Come near them, you die. Come near my family, you will die. Come near me, you die. Come near anyone that knows me very well, you die. And I'll make sure that I kill you myself because you have no right to do this. No wonder why Tali hate you fucking idiot. You disowned her and she just forgets about you. She lost her mother, and I have lost both of my parents. So if I kill you, then I will make sure that Tali will know about it and I'll tell her that you threatened to have our children killed. So I suggest you shut the fuck up or I will kill you right now." He took quick heavy breaths and then continued, "I never liked you after what Tali told me about you and the fucking stupid things that you try to do. You are the main reason why Project Overlord was made and Cerberus made it their own but the worse part was that you experimented on your own daughter. And she remembers that."

Rael took a seat and hunched over with hands on his visor. "Ancestors, what have I done. You're right. I shouldn't have done that. Forgive me -"

John shook his head. "Too little, too late." He walked to a nurse and talked to her for a little while. "How long will it be before I see my wife?"

The nurse looks at him and then shakes his head. "I'm sorry sir, but I don't know how long. I want you to know that what ever happens, there is nothing to be ashamed of. I will see if I can get some more information for you, okay."

"Thank you," John went back to the waiting area and sat down. Raan came next to him and placed her hand on his knee. He looks at Raan; who is smiling.

"She'll be alright, John. She is your wife. At least someone honors," she looks at Rael, "that about it. I can't believe that you want to kill the children of the person that gave us the home-world. No wonder why he hates you. And I should have you out of the hospital."

John shook his head and went to sleep. A nurse came by about an hour on his sleep and placed a blanket on him. He didn't wake up. All he did was wait for Tali. He was having a nightmare.

_John wakes up and looks around the place and sees a doctor coming up. He doesn't know what is going on because he doesn't hear a voice. But John gets up and walks to the room where Tali is at. He knocks on the door and opens it. He is then taken back to the day on earth that Tali was with him on the court system after the Balah System incident. He then say her get undressed and they were laying in bed. Then the place starts to rumble. John gets to the window and sees Reapers coming down to Earth. He gets up and walks out until he hears a voice that made him sad. "__**YOU FAILED TO DEFEAT US. YOU FAILED TO HONOR YOUR PROMISES AND STILL YOU TRIED TO SUCCEED TO DEFEAT US. YOU FAILED SHEPARD. YOU FAILED AND YOUR LOVED ONE IS DEAD."**_

John wakes up and looks around and sees Raan has her head on his right shoulder and Rael has his head on his left shoulder. He didn't want to go back to sleep. He didn't want to hear Harbinger's voice. But there was something wrong with it. He looked around and saw a doctor come up.

"You must be Tali's bondmate. Doctor Muid'Greid vas Rannoch. Your wife delievered three healthy children. Two girls and a boy. She is in room 50A. I would make sure that she is safe but I want you to see her because she asked for you," John nodded at the Quarian and got up.

"Thank you for the information. How long was I out?"

"Three hours. I was told not to wake you up because you had a nightmare and you were talking in your sleep. I didn't want to risk getting hurt."

John walked down the hallway and found the room. He knocked very lightly so that he didn't risk waking up the children. The door opened very little and he walked.


	6. Chapter 4: The Triplets part 2

Chapter 4: The Triplets part 2

John walks into the the hospital room and finds Tali is resting. He looks around to see the children are sleeping in right next to her. He gives a small but faint smile. That smile seemed to make him happy knowing that has a family. The sunlight comes through the window, having the small beams of light hit Tali's face. He was happy that Tali was alive and the children were still alive.

Tali starts breathing slowly and then in a sudden gesture, her eyes open. She doesn't see John in the room and she just looks at the children like the dream was real. But the dream was real. She then sees John's shoulder in the corner of her eye and looks at him. "I didn't know you where there, John. Please tell me that my father didn't make it."

John shook his head. He knew if he told her that he did, then she wouldn't allow Rael near him; which is fine by John. John never like Rael after what happened but something was not right. He looks at Tali and can tell that she wanted something. "I'm sorry but he made it. He wanted the children killed but I threatened him so badly, that he just sat down and said something about being a bad person."

Tali looks at him and didn't even bother with it but she knew that if she wanted answers from him, she had to ask him, "Why would he want the children killed, John? If he wants then killed, then you kill him."

"I will kill him if he comes to at least 10 feet close to my children. The reason why he wants them killed is because he doesn't want Human DNA in the family tree. He wants all the children to be with Quarian DNA at a hundred percent. He didn't want any child to be half and half. I told Raan to keep him away because he is worse than Admiral Xen."

"You got that right. Even though he is my father, he doesn't care about me anymore until now. I will never understand why."

The door opens and Rael is seen coming. "I need to speak with both of you. Main you Commander. After all the pain that you told me and what you would do, I realized that I was in the wrong to threatened your children. I'm sorry. And I understand if you want me dead right now. So please give me one act of random kindness. I want to ask for forgiveness."

John shakes his head. "You expect me to forgive after what you done to my wife, me, and my family. I don't think so. I don't want to see you ever again. So I suggest you leave before I do something very dramatic and it will have on one of the hospital beds."

Rael looks at with widened eyes. He thought he could ask but unfortunately, that bridge burnt down. "Really, Johnathan? You won't forgive me. I asked for redemption when we were outside waiting for hours. Raan agrees with me. But you won't. No no wonder why..."

"And no wonder why the Alliance doesn't trust you and Gerrel. Both of you are reckless and ego-maniacs," Tali said. Rael looked at her with narrowed eyes of hatred. "After mother, died, you just basically tossed me aside. No more of this. I forbid you to be near us at any time."

Rael comes up to her and kisses her cheek. "I'm sorry but I'm not going to abandon my daughter like I did so I can have the home-world for use. No, I want to be with the people I want to spend my time to die with but you don't want to do that. Not even for a dying wish. I can see why and you never forgot the past."

Tali slaps Rael's face so hard, it made John make a hurtful face. "You never cared about me when mother died. And you never cared about my husband. I can see why you are still hated. I should have gave that evidence so you can be exiled from the fleet when it was your," she covers the children's the ears but couldn't cover the the last one but John did it for her, "fucking fault for what you did. You deliberately had Geth on a server without the Admiralty board. And that was the fucking mistake you bosh'tet. Because of you, I was on trail because the Geth parts I sent were inactive." She looks at John and nods her head to signal him that she was done cussing. "And you think I should forgive you for that. No, I'm going to make sure that the evidence is given to the Admiralty board so that you can be exiled. You don't deserve to be on the seat if you can't do your job and keep your family safe."

Rael sunked his head and looked down at the floor. "If you want to do that, I have no problem with that. Do what you want. But Tali, please forgive me for using you for everything. I... I didn't mean it." Rael starts crying and walks out the room. He closed the doors behind him.

John can still him sobbing until it was out of earshot. Then he looked at Tali and asked, "So what do you want to name the children?"

"I was think Raela, Rena, and after your middle name," she looked down and say the little boy was sleeping and the other girls were playing around. "I'm not even sure if I can forgive my father."

John looks down at the floor and sees a note. He picks it up and hands it to her. "I don't know what it says but you might be able to understand it. I think Rael dropped it."

Tali starts reading and then starts crying. "I don't know what to say. He has changed. I'm shocked that he left this for us." He then takes her hands and gently takes the tears off her face. "I forgive him."

John looks at her and sees her still crying. He gets close to her and gently squeezes her. "Tali, don't be fooled. I lost both of my parents. I don't want you to lose both of yours and regret something that will happen. Rael is an hard," he coughs so that the children don't hear the next word, "ass. But he doesn't seem fond on doing something that helps his family, even if he wants to help. I don't know if I can forgive him for using you for the first part of the project that Cerberus had called Project Overlord. He used you and he threatened my family. That means I can't forgive him."

"But I do. So I'm going to name our son after him. That way, we can remember the pain but we have a chance of fixing it with good parenting. And I don't care what you have to say John."

"You will when I tell you that I'm not living in a house with someone that is named after the person that is harmful to the family. I will be sleeping in the apartments until the boy is eighteen and is doing his pilgrimage," he sighs when he sees Tali's face. "Fine, I will not live in an apartment. I will stay with you."

"Thank you John." The door opens and Raan comes in. "Auntie Raan. So glad to see you."

"And it's good to see you niece. Commander as well. I came to see how are things because I saw Rael coming down the hall crying like a baby. I never seen him do that when Tali was born. And I kept hearing 'They hate me, so I must be off' and sometimes 'I can't believe my daughter hates me.'"

"Raan, you know that Tali doesn't like her father after what happened with her mother. But she still loved him. But his love towards my wife was gone."

Raan stood there crossing her arms and shaking her head. "I don't know why he would do that except that a Human terrorist organization called Cerberus attacked the ship Rael was on. And if I remembered correctly, they were wanting to find a way to control the Geth in 'religious matters'."

John looks up to her and walks to the door. "I need some air. I don't want Rael near my children at all. I will kill him if he comes on fucking," the children all start crying and Tali tries to calm them down," step towards them."

John leaves the room leaving Tali, Raan and the three newborns. "So Tali, have you came up with names for them?"

"I have Auntie. Rena, Raela, and Rael."

"Tali, I'm not sure John is going to like that. Naming the child after the man that hates him. I don't know if he... if he will do something dramatic."

"Don't worry about it. Me and John will talk about this. We will even have to talk to father about this. I don't know if he will like that - John I mean - but we have to do something. Because I want my child named after my father because I believe that he has changed."

"Okay, child. What ever you believe, I support you."

"Thanks, Auntie."


	7. Chapter 5: Busted part 1

Chapter 5: Busted part 1

John looks around Rael's living room and shakes his head when he sees photos of himself with words on the pictures. Most of the words were either 'Die ALIENS', 'FUCK YOU ALL ALIENS', 'I WANT EVERYONE ALIEN TO STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME', and 'WHY BOTHER WITH ALIENS WHEN YOU CAN KILL THEM'. John shakes his head and tries to image a new place. No matter what he did, he couldn't try to get it to be his happy place. After a while, Tali comes in with Raan and they sit down at the couch. It has been three months since the triplets were born, and now it was time to get this clear.

"Look," Rael said with so much venom, it made it sound like he wanted to shoot John, "I don't want you near my daughter if you are going to be here for stupid reason."

John nodded his head in agreement, "Then we both agree on that. I'm leaving, and I'm not even going to make you change your mind." John gets up but Raan narrows her eyes with a cold stare to make John sit down. "I'm not going to talk to this ego-manaic about something that he shouldn't have done when Tali's mother died."

"And I want you killed after all the pain you brought to my people during the Collector attacks," Rael yelled out so load that it felt like the windows were going to bust.

"For your fucking information, 'Admiral', there is one thing you forgot to mention. It wasn't the full species. It was Cerberus that -"

Rael interrupts him, "A HUMAN TERRORIST GROUP! And if I remember you are a human, so I don't trust you. I rather have my daughter married to a fucking Vorcha that can at least do something right."

"And if I remembered, you are a terrorist because you had Geth units made on your lab ship that I had to secure. My Uncle should have killed you because you are not the time of it. I hope you understand this, I still have the video of what you were doing."

Raan looks at Rael, "What is he talking about?" Rael lowered his head and ignored her. "RAEL! You better talk right now!"

"I'm not telling you anything. And if he tries to share the video to anyone, I will kill him! This is why I hate aliens. They are always in our business," Rael looked at Raan, "You have to understand that they will just keep on and on until you give them what they want and when they get what them want, they betray you before you can do anything."

"Commander, share us the video," Raan watched Rael pick a pistol and shook her head. "And Rael, if you try to kill him, I will kill you. So you better think before you kill the person that gave you the home-world."

"But he made 'peace' with the Geth. I don't think that is right because they driven us out."

Tali shook her head, "NO! Because they were rebelling and we had to stop them. They were only defending themselves."

"I find that hard to believe, daughter. Because there is no way, they care doing peace with us when they are demanding more than half of the northern couninet."

"I don't care what you think Rael. Commander, give us the video."

"Will do. And Rael, pull that gun out, I will shoot it out of your hand and have my uncle hunt you down like the sick bastard you are. So I suggest you forget about it you fucking bosh'tet."

"So you know one word in our native tongue," Rael asked. "I thought you learn more."

"You need to shut-up or I will cut that tongue out of your head," Tali threatened him. "And then I will shoot you for threatening my children and my bondmate."

John just ignored the whole thing and started typing on his omni-tool. After a few seconds, a small image comes up with Rael and two other Quarians.

_"Sir, we have the latest amount of Geth parts your daughter just sent. What are we going to do with them," asked the one of the Quarians that was male._

_"I say we just make sure that there is nothing wrong with it," the other Quarian, which was a female._

_"I don't care what you do as long as nothing goes wrong. I made a promise to my daughter after her mother died to build her a house on the home-world," Rael said. He then turn his back towards the camera. "I don't want any more excuses. I want this weapons to work correctly so we can rage war. I don't care what Commander Shepard says about the 'Reapers'", he does the finger quote while saying 'Reapers', "but I want this done."_

_The male Quarian looks at him, "Are you sure sir. What if we get permission from the Admiralty board?"_

_"Screw them. I'm not waiting for politics to vote on something that needs to be dealt with right now. We grow sick on the stars because of the fucking Geth made it hard for us to live. Now we suffer because of those synthetics. I want them all destroyed. I want them destroyed so that I can get this promise done. I made a promise and I intend to keep. Unless something I don't like happens like her getting romanced with that fucking Human."_

_"Okay, then what do you want us to do if the information is forbidden to go to the Admiralty board?"_

_"Have the Geth hooked up to servers so that the whole thing works. I don't want anything to go wrong. This is the only way to make sure that nothing goes wrong. I don't want to nothing to be laid back on anyone that is in my family. Leave Tali out of this when it comes to this. And if the Geth rebel, then it will be her that will be facing the trail because the ship will be attacked and lose every signal."_

Raan looked at Rael with dagger eyes. She then gets up and punches him in the visor. "Rael'Zorah vas Rannoch, you are here by under arrest for attempt of Geth activity illegally and treason. You will be faced for exile. Anything you do until your trail, it will be recorded and can be used against you."

"But that was years ago. You can't do that, Raan. We are family. I had to do it other wise the home-world would be lost forever."

Tali and John grab each other and walk to the door. "I hope you made your daughter proud. I had enough of this. Why do you hate aliens so much?!"

"Because they killed my parents! That's is why. And you don't know what it is like -"

"You are damned wrong. I lost both of my parents when I was on Mindoir. Batarian slavers killed them before I could do anything. In case I wasn't clear, if you so much come near me, I will kill you and I will make sure that your fucking balls are shot off before I kill you with a knife."

Tali was sobbing over what is going. She didn't believe that John would do this, but there was little choice. Her father threatened the man she loved, her children, and was responsible for treason. "Here I was going to name our son after you father but no, you had to be a bosh'tet. I don't want to see you again in my life. I don't want to see you again. You're not the father I knew before mother died. You are a thing that is a monster. I don't want to know what you did and I don't want to care because for now on, I'm not your daughter."

"But Tali -"

"No, you have no right to call me Tali! I don't want you to see you, hear from you, and talk to you ever again. I'm sick of you trying to tell me that I did wrong for marrying someone that you hate because of what happened years ago. But now, this is different. I hope you are but to death for this because you don't even deserve to be exiled. And if you are founded guilty - which I'm hoping - John will execute you." She storms out of the room while crying.

"I hope your happy, traitor," Raan goes after her.


	8. Chapter 5: Busted part 2

Chapter 5: Busted part 2

Rael looks at John and gets up to head to the kitchen. But John shoots his M-77 Paladin at the wall to stop Rael. Rael sighs and sits back down. "And another thing I hate about you... "

"Finish that sentence, you will coughing blood and eating through a straw," John looked at Rael with devilish eyes. "So you stay put until the fifth Battalion's Bridge gets down here. And I'm sure that the five-oh first Legion will be glad to escort you away for this. Listen to me, I don't like you. You treat me like trash, I'll treat you like trash. And when I treat someone like trash, they will regret it."

"And I regret what I did. I shouldn't have placed the Geth on the servers. I should have when with Zaal'Koris' plans of peace," Rael looks up and then shakes his head. "Tell me something. Do you love my daughter?"

"That question is out of the picture because you heard her. She doesn't want you near, see, hear from, or talk to you anymore. She just disowned you because of your stupid actions. Matter fact, I have someone here to make sure you don't do anything like that anymore. I would say it is a person but really it's my pistol," John reloads the gun because there is only two out of three slugs in the weapon. He takes his head and ejects the thermal clip to replace it with a fresh one. He then looks at Rael and shakes his head. "I don't even want to hear what you have to say. I lived here for a year and you are not counted as a traitor. I hope you die like one because I will not do kindly to someone who threatens me, my wife, my friends, and my family. I will make sure that some kill you if you come close to them," John pauses for a second to catch his breath after his face turned six shades of red. "I don't care if you are an Admiral. You made my wife sad, you will pay."

Rael was silent as he was trying to stay quiet. But for some odd reason, he wasn't breathing. John didn't know what was going on so he checked his pulse. Right when he grabbed Rael's wrist, Rael headbutted John so hard, blood came out of his head. "Stay away from me alien. I don't need you to see if I'm alive." As he got ready to get up, he felt a sharp pain. Rael didn't know by when he headbutted John, John landed a quick kick to Rael's ribs.

Raan comes back in with a paper in hand. She hands it to John and starts crying. "I'm sorry but it would be best if you read it."

John opens the letter and starts crying. He didn't know what was going on. "'I'm sorry my love but I have to leave. I'm taking the children away from Rannoch. I don't want to come back. I don't want you to worry about this but I have nothing to live for because of that monster. Forgive me. I'll see if I can return to get you and everything else. I will be at the place where it all started.' You fucking monster. Thanks you, Rael, my wife left me behind." John grabs Rael by the neck and throws him into the wall. "I'm not going to have my uncle kill you. I'm going to kill you myself." Right when he is about to attack, a marine comes in with a gun aimed at John.

"Admiral Zorah, everything alright," the marine asked. He was in a dark blue suit with red stains all over it.

"No, this man assaulted me for no reason. I demand you take him away right now," Rael ordered the marine to do so. The marine saluted him and grabbed John's arms. "I also what to press charges on him."

Raan comes up. "I'm not allowing you to do this. You were the one that did the wrong. Illegal actions to the Geth studies and treason. I suggest you arrest Admiral Rael."

The marine looked at John then at Raan. "How about I get both of you arrested for trespassing and assault to an admiral. I suggest you shut-up or I will make you pay for this."

"Admiral Raan, you better have a plan for this," John looked at Rael and then looked at the marine.

"I don't Commander. I'm sorry. Unless you have evidence..."

The marine looks at Raan. "Evidence won't help you at all. I would love to see this alien rot in jail."

John starts working on his omni-tool and shows the video of Admiral Rael's cruel experiments towards the Geth without any permission. The Marine looks at Rael and gives him a hand. "Admiral, you are under arrest," the marine places handcuffs on Rael and shoves him towards the door. "The trial will be in place tomorrow." He motions two of his men over. "I want you to get him to the jails now! I need to talk to these two." The two marines saluted him and walk off with Rael.

John looks at the Marine while he un-cuffs them. "Glad the plan worked, Commander. I didn't think it would work."

Raan looked at John with a surprised look and tried to say a word. "What plan?"

John looks at Raan. "The plan that I made when I came here. I know how Rael is. He wouldn't be able to resist to slander my with his racism. So I got Aidmor'Mal vas Neema to come down here. I helped him with a mission that dealt with Admiral Koris. So it would be seem fair if I had him help me with this to bust an admiral."

Aidmor nodded his head. "Yes, sir. And I'm sorry if it sounded like I was racist Admiral Shala. I didn't mean to make it feel that way towards you. I didn't want you to think Shepard would get killed by me."

"I'm just glad that Admiral Zorah is in jail," Raan said. "And Captain Mal, don't call an Admiral by the first name, you call them by the last name."

"Yes, ma'am," he saluted her and walked off.

John then looks at the door. "You can come out now, Tali." Tali gets out of the cloak that she borrowed from Kasumi Goto, John's cousin. She then walks up to John. "Glad that worked."

"I'm glad it did," Tali looks at Raan. "I'm sorry but I didn't want to say a word about this while that monster was here. I just want to have a nice day. I want to see that monster put on trial for this. I don't even think I would see him again and I'll be glad for that."

"So tell me how you got this to work Commander. Captain Mal, you are free to go," Raan looked at John. Aidmor saluted and walked out of the room followed the other Quarians that arrested Rael'Zorah.

"Simple. After me helping Aidmor back when we had a chance to save Koris and the crew, we got both. He pledged his life to help me with anything no matter what."


	9. Chapter 6: An Invitation

Chapter 6: An Invitation

John and Tali are looking at the extranet news articles and sigh in relief when they find out that Rael is exiled from Rannoch. After reading, they look at each other and hear a knock on the door. After hearing the knock, John gets up and grabs a M-7 Lancer X and hands two M-3 Predators to Tali.

"Go to the children's room and stay there for now. I don't want you to die. And it is after all, five in the morning," John told Tali. She nods her head and walks up the stairs that are in the kitchen.

The door flies open and an old man comes in. The old man is wearing an Alliance and has a scar on his right side of his face. John lowers his weapon and gives a sigh in relief that it is Admiral Hackett. "Commander, I need to talk to you about something that requires you to leave the planet."

Tali stops walking when she hears Hackett's voice. "Hackett, why do you need my bondmate to leave the family. He is needed here more than anywhere else."

"I need your husband - or bondmate as Quarians may say - to come to the Citadel. It is time for the celebration for Reaper War Anniversary. We also are going to give a statue in honor for him due to his brave works."

John shakes his head and chuckles to himself. "Thanks but I'm not sure of that. I care about the War is over but a statue in my honor."

Hackett looks at him and shakes his head then smiles from ear to ear. "We have to because you are the goddamn best soldier that fought through the war and survived it without any problem. They want to have this for you. So that other people can see you. Also, Anderson wanted this to be done because he knows how it is for you to say no to be honored for your great deeds. Just look at Torfan."

"Torfan was a bitch to me. I'm just lucky that I survived that planet before they had to shoot my ass everywhere. I'm just lucky to have to survive the Reaper War, so really I don't need a statue for that."

"Sorry but they want you to be honored because you were the one that cured the Genophage, made peace to the Geth and Quarians, had Aria's mercenaries help out, brough Cerberus down, convinced the Illusive Man to commit suicide, save the Rachni Queen twice, destroy Reaper on Rannoch so that the Quarians can have a home-world, convinced the Batarians to aid us after the Balah System Incident, saved Grissom Academy from Cerberus, saved Krogan support on Tuchanka when Cerberus had the hold guns, had Admiral Zaal'Koris vas Qwib Qwib back on the Admiralty board, shutdown Project Overlord, had Admiral Xen killed after she tried to hack into the Geth network to kill you, got the Crucible plans to us, gave more support by purchasing items help your ship and the Crucible, gave use scientists that are doing work, made the Krogan-Salarian-and-Turian peace done, killed a sleeper agent called Donnel Udina, and you destroyed the Reapers," Hackett takes a deep breath and then looks at John. "Now you know."

John looks at Tali and motions her near by. "Okay, so when do I leave?"

"'I'; you mean 'we'," Hackett corrected him. "Three weeks from now. I will give you enough time to come down to the Citadel and get ready. I was also contacted by the System Alliance, Blood Pack, Eclipse, Talon, Blue Suns, Justicars, C-Sec, E-Crimes, Spectres, and other orginzation that helped us in the war to request you to have a speech written by you and presented by you. I authorized it and everyone agreed."

Tali looks at Hackett, "You sure about that, Admiral. I'm just curious of what the whole thing is when there are still enemies for my bondmate."

"Nothing to concern yourself Mrs. Shepard. We will have people stationed every building at all times during the speech. I will have a person person near by during the time of now to the end of the day of the speech. Once the speech is done, you can stay if you want or you can head out. If you stay, then you need bring your clothing and other necessities. Any questions?"

Tali walks behind John and opens the fridge to get a dextro Coke-Cola. She then turns her head towards Hackett, "Will there be anything that deals with security protocols?"

Hackett looks at Tali and then sighs, "Yes, I have someone that will be here with you like I said. He goes by the codename Shadow. He will meet you at," he looks around like he wants to make sure no one else is looking and listening, "at Midday's Gardens restaurant. And during the the three week period, we will have C-Sec and E-Crimes working on the correct areas to have snipers, just in case something goes wrong. We will have more security protocols like no weapons during the day the statue is first arrived; excluding sidearms. We will also be having more scans around the area so that weapons; like chemicals, guns, swords, knives, blades, and other weapons that can do a lot of weapon. We will also have the high politics being escorted by Spectres."

"Seems good enough to me, Admiral," John said. "So I'm classified as a high politic? That don't sound too bad to me. So when do I meet this man?"

"You can go right now if you want. I'm sure you and him will be good friends. I'm sure of that," Hackett pointed his index finger at the door. "I hope you will be alright with that and it would be wise before he leaves the area. If he is not at Midday's Gardens, then he will be at a hotel room that is locked after twenty-two-hundred hours to three-hundred hours. He gets to the restaurant around four-hundred hours to twenty-one hundred hours."

"Okay, then let's get him. Tali, you stay here. And make sure that Raphael and Hermes keeps the house safe outside," he said with concern. He didn't want Tali and the family to die. He remembered when his family on Mindoir was killed. He didn't want to suffer with that again. He loved Tali and the children enough that he would sacrifice himself to save her and the kids.

"Alright. Shall we, Commander," Hackett opens the door that leads outside and walks towards skycar. "I hope you are alright with this because I don't want you dead before anything else happens."

"I understand Admiral," John walks out of the house and walks to the skycar. "Who's driving?"

Hackett lifts the keys and shakes them by holding them by the chain. "Who do you think, son?"

"Okay, so you," John opens the door and climbs in. "I hope this is not a wild goose chase because I hate it when someone tests my patience. He better be there or I will find him and gut him like a fish." That statement made Hackett laugh. "So, what can you tell me about him. Anything that I should be warned about."

"Just one thing: he is the most brutalist asshole I ever saw. He was our spy for Cerberus during Project Titan but that failed when the Illusive Man used Titan on our contact. He is now like a super-steroid person. Get's that Titan, and it makes him stronger, faster, more intelligent, and more stable to do many acrobats."

"So he is like the villain named Bane in the old Batman comic books," John chuckles for a little bit. "But I thought Titan was not allowed to be manufactured after Titan was founded and nearly killed General Marshall."

"Titan is illegal to manufactured but our contact has to have it because he was exposed to high-levels of Titan. When we found him, he didn't look like he was human anymore. All it was meat, tubes, bones, and parts of organs. It was that bad for him. So yes, don't anger him because when he gets that Titan in his system, he is ten times stronger than Krogan."


	10. Chapter 7: Meeting with the Titan-Freak

Chapter 7: Meeting with the Titan-freak

Hackett and John get close to the Midday Gardens and look around to see if their contact is near by. Hackett motions John to go out the skycar and walk towards the entrance. John looks at him and gets out of the skycar. "Okay, I got some more information on this contact. Not much. The only thing I don't have is his name, service number, and his ID number. So find Shadow, John, before something becomes wrong."

"I will. Shepard out," John walks into the building but a Quarian stops him. He looks at the Quarian and sees him shaking.

"Sorry sir, but I can't allow you in if you don't know what is required."

John walks towards the wall and sees a man is sitting in a chair. The man then looks at him with dagger eyes; making John feel uncomfortable. The man then signals John to sit next to him. John shakes his head and walks towards the man. "I need to know something and I'm thinking you might have what I need," John said with a stern voice.

"I'm sure of that but I'm not talking," the man starts humming a Linkin Park song called What I've Done. He stops about thirty seconds after humming and looks up at John, "Sorry but can you leave. I would like some peace and quit. I'm waiting for a special war hero to walk in."

John then sits down next to him and looks at the man. "Okay, then I'm sure that we can talk about Admiral Gerrel."

The man then lifts his head up and looks at the floor. "Don't say that name. I hate him after what he did to my nephew."

John then looks at the mask the man is wearing and sees some black and red around the mask. "Nice Death Mask. I'm sure it didn't cost you that much."

"Don't be trying to scoop me with your polite gestures. Now, please move away." He then looks at the ceiling and sees the fan moving around in clockwise. He then just stares at the fane for a little while until he heard John got up and walked towards the door.

John places two fingers in his ear and starts talking. "Okay, I'm sorry but I'm not sure if our contact is here..."

"Okay, then you might want to say this phrase: Don't blink in the eye without breaking the blue sky," Hackett said very calmly.

"Okay, I will see if I can. Shepard out."

The man looks at the Quarian waiter and walks towards the waiter. "I need you to call the officals and arrest the man. I have a bad feeling on this..."

John then walks up to the man and motions the Quarian to walk away. After the Quarian walks away, John then looks the man's back to see if there was a supply unit for Titan. He then sees a supply unit on the back after a few seconds, "Don't blink in the eye without breaking the blue sky," the man heard John said that and turn around.

"Follow me. I need to talk to you," he walks up to the doors that is leading to exit the building and walks out of the building after pushing the doors. He then sees Hackett and walks up to the old man. "So, I'm taking that you have me here for a reason. I'm wondering why."

Hackett places his face in his hands. "This is Commander John Ryu Shepard."

"John Ryu Shepard? So what are you doing brother, trying to tell me that this is my nephew," the man spoke with acid in his voice. "I'm not working of him unless he is important. I didn't take the N7 program for the Blade Division for the N7 Shadows to be his bodyguard. I did it so I can protect important people."

"Now just listen, He is important. You don't disrespect him and my flesh and blood...," Hackett then looked at John, who had a surprised look.

"What? What the fuck is going on," John asked with both eyebrows raised.

Hackett then looked at the man. "This is your uncle, Ragan Ryu Hackett. I'm your father, John. I didn't want to tell you because I didn't marry your..."

"I don't care what you have to say about marriage. So this is the man that will be protecting me?"

"Seems likely because he is trained by many people. Some of them were impossible to find nowadays. He is doing this because he wants to protect you. I expect both of you to be getting together. So lets see what both of you can do for the next three weeks."

"Shut up, bother. You want me to work for this war hero? Fuck that," something about this man made John remember Jack. "Fuck you old man. You might be my brother but I'm not listening to you. I'm not taking this assignment and if I am forced to do so, then I will make damn certain that assignment is a complete fail."

"You jeopardize the assignment, then you will be court-martial," Hackett said with a powerful stern voice and made Ragan to back off for a little while. "NOW GET YOUR ASS IN! You are to be with the Commander at all times."

Ragan saluted Hackett, and got inside of the skycar. "Fine, but I want to make damn certain that nothing gets past me."

John and Hackett get inside of the skycar and drive back to John's house. After fifteen minutes, they reach John's house. They then get out of the skycar and walk towards the door. Just as John is about to open the door, the door is flung opened. Hackett and Ragan jump up while John just stood there. Tali was on the other side and sees everyone is trying to come in. She then lets the three men to come in.

"Who's your guess," Tali asked.

"Name is Hackett, Ragan Hackett," Ragan said immediately. "I have been assigned to be your bodyguard until the statue is rewarded for both honoring you and him. And Steve wants to have this done before some time. I really don't like it but we don't have much of a choice. What else can I say."

Steve look at his brother and walks up to him. "Okay, I want you both to have reports given to me. John, you listen to your uncle..."

Tali jumps so high it looks like she is about to grab the ceiling like a cat gets scared from a loud noise. "UNCLE?! WHAT IS GOING ON?!"

Steve look at Tali and raised one eyebrow. He then cleared his throat before speaking, "He is your husband's uncle because I'm his father. I didn't want to tell him. His really mother is not Hannah but someone else. She is Hannah Shepard. You know know. Kasumi Kaiba is his mother because Hannah died on Mindoir." He then looks at Ragan and takes a few steps back. "You know he is part of the family. And Kasumi is not only the god-mother but John's aunt. She is Hannah's sister." He looks at John to see a surprised expression but to his surprise, there was not such expression. It was like John knew something and Steve didn't want to talk about it.

Ragan shakes his head and walks to the fridge and pushes his back on the door to steady himself from falling. "Is there a room I can stay, preferably a room that allows me to work for security of your family. I do a lot of modifications, calibrations, cleaning, and a lot more for weapons, engines, and other major parts for any ship."

John looked at him and sighed, "Yeah, there is a room but I'm warning you right now. If you so..."

"Warning me. I think the Admiral didn't tell you this but I'm a General. Which means, you have no right threaten me. Now, STAND DOWN SOLDIER," his yell made everyone look at him with wide eyes. They were shocked that it didn't wake the children up. "You won't to be like that, then you must understand one thing," he gets to John's ears and whispers, "you will not threaten me because the last person who threatened me had his eyes gouged out by a spoon."

"Stand down, Spectre authority," John made Ragan stop and look at him for a few minutes. After a little while, Ragan salutes him and walks towards Tali.

"Why are you like this, Ragan," Tali and John asked at the same time. They then looked at each other and shook their heads.

"Because I lost my wife and two daughters on Japan. I want to avenge them. That's why I'm a hard-ass soldier towards everyone." He then gets off the fridge and walks to the frame. "I don't want to ruin anything at all." He walks out of the kitchen and finds the room with weapons.


	11. Chapter 8: Knowing More about the Family

Chapter 8: Knowing More about the Family

Ragan enters the room and finds weapons all over the walls. He then walks up to a counter that has a M-11 Wraith and N7 Eagle. He grabs the N7 Eagle until he heard the door open up behind him. On instinct, he aims the weapon towards the door and sees John coming in. In relief, he lowers the weapon and gives a sigh. "Don't do that," Ragan said while panting.

"Sorry for that. I want to know more about my family. Can you tell me anything," John was confused after the past week that was going on.

"Sorry, but I don't know that much. I went to a village that burnt down five years later. I was the only survivor. I was trained by N7 Shadows during the N7 program. Joined the Alliance and still with them. Never met your mother, never met anyone else that was part of your family until I got graduated N7. I stayed in Japan until the village burnt. After that, I went on revenge spree until I was nearly killed. Cerberus brought me back alive but I went -but really I didn't went, I chose to - rogue."

John looks him with a surprised, and yet a confused look. "Cerberus brought you back? That sound familiar."

Ragan looks at John and points at him. "I was brought back the same way that you were. But instead of being spaced, I was shoot by a Geth Juggernaut when I was stationed at Terra Nova. Bullet holes everywhere on me, and they found me. It took them five years to bring me back because they wanted me to be the Illusive Man's personal assassin until Kai Leng was chosen." He grabs a weapon and moves to the counter. "I need two work before we leave in two weeks." He grabs a Titan Pulsar for a pistol and starts working on it. "Anything else you want to talk about?"

"Just one: Why did you stay in the village?"

"Quiet, peaceful and, most important to me, a family," Ragan bows his head down when he finished talking. "I miss them dearly. I just wish I could have saved them before the fire broke out of control."

"I'm sorry. I'm sure that whoever burnt your village is dead."

"Not even close. The person who burnt it was a gang called the Blue Suns. They were vicious bastards," he then places the pistol down on the counter looks at the door. "I'm done talking. Please, leave me be. I have to make sure that the weapon is working correctly." John rolled his eyes when Ragan starts shooting at the bottles.

"Okay, sorry for that. When can we talk?"

"How about the next day of Rememberance Day of Mindoir."

"And that is the day after the putting the statue on the Citadel."

"You got that right. Now please leave me be. I need to work when I'm head of your security for the whole thing," he motions John to leave.

John then walks out of the room and heads to the children's bedroom. He looks at his three children and gives a smile. He then feels a three finger hand touch his solider. "I know it's you Tali."

Tali then looks at him and gives him a kiss on the cheeks. "So glad that we are going to meet our friends in two weeks," she looks at her bondmate and sees him having some trouble. "No doubt this is all new to you," John shakes his head, "Not that, then what is it?"

"'What is it?' It not that. It is about why they are having the statue on the Rememberance Day of Mindoir."

"Don't you remember. The Reapers invaded Earth on that day. They were not going to do anything. So we need to do something else," she grabs one of the cribs and looks at the child inside. "Okay, so what now with our son's name?"

"I was thinking about Zaal from Admiral Koris."

"Not bad. Then I will get to the courthouse tomorrow and do everything for this. I hope it doesn't cost too much credits."

"We always do. Remember the endorsements that I give that say 'I'm Commander Shepard and this is my favorite store in the Citadel,'" That expression made Tali giggled.

John then walks out of the room while spinning Tali on her toes. "I'm going to see if my uncle will be ready to get some information out of this. Because I might want to see what kind of person he is." He walks out but doesn't see Ragan was in the hallway. John quickly turns then scream then make Ragan scream. "JESUS HOLY CHRIST! Don't do that uncle."

"Sorry. Just came to tell you that they decided to move the day when the statue is going to in a week. Turns out that when the Bahal system was destroyed, that was the start of the Reaper War," Ragan walks away from there and turns around to the other corner. John shakes his head.

"Get back over here, now," Ragan stops where he is at and walks back to John. "You said you got the message, how come I didn't know about it?"

"Maybe because they knew you would be targeted by some terrorist group that you thought you destroyed about a year ago. Cerberus still is out there but in small forces. And thanks to you convincing the Illusive Man to commit suicide, they are hell bent to come after you. So that's why they messaged me about this. I'm sure if you have the Geth platforms run tests, it will come up as Alliance message."

"Okay, then give it to our communication specialist, Thor. He will make sure of it," Thor comes up from the stairs and looks at them. John looks at Thor, "That was quick."

"This platform is known to see into the possibilities of the future. Does this unit not seem fit to do it's active duty," Thor asked while having 'his' head flaps raised. At first, it was weird to John to see this but then he noticed that Geth are AI, artificial intelligence, so they are known to 'predict' the future of what's going to happen. "We would like to examine the letter."

Ragan gives the e-mail by typing on his omni-tool and sends it to the Geth platform. "See what you can come up with."

"We will see Hackett-General."

"What did you say? That is disrespectful for not saying the rank before the last name..."

John laughs at Ragan, "They do that because they don't have military ranks in their military. They only know very few things and the first geth unit that spoke about this is Legion."

"Okay, fine. That don't make sense but I don't give a fuck about it," Ragan shakes his head.

"We have found this e-mail is is hundred percent Alliance made," Thor then takes the e-mail and deletes the main copy. "Anything else before I leave?"

"No," John said and motioned Thor to leave with his hand. Thor then moves out of the hallway and to the living room. "Now I want to know something and you better give me a straight answer. Why hide Admiral Hackett as my father?"

Ragan looks down at the floor and starts talking like a Geth unit without sounding like a machine. "This unit does not understand the question. Please rephrase it to understandable way so it can be answered."

"You know the answer, you just don't want to tell me."

"Because the person that your going to be your father, if he didn't die before he married your mother, would have made you a fucking asshole. That's one reason. The other reason is because Hackett wanted a son but since he didn't married your mother, he didn't want to have you have the same name as his. He cared about you and thought if you took the name, it would make his life a living hell with you and your mother. He wanted to keep you away from himself so he can have some room. And by doing that, he made enough room to do that. I supported him on that." Ragan then walks away before John grabs him.


	12. Chapter 9: Changing Names

Chapter 9: Changing Names

A young Quarian is sitting down behind a desk while Tali is coming into the courthouse. The young Quarian then stops doing what she is doing and motions Tali over. On instint, Tali walks up to the young Quarian and places on arm on the counter. "Can I help you, ma'am," the young Quarian was in a happy mood and it looked like she was eager to get the day's type of work done.

"Yes, I'm here to change my son's name," Tali said with some fear in her voice. "I want to change it because he is named after a tratior."

"Okay, let me check who it is and see if I can do this. What is his name?"

"Rael'Shepard nar Rannoch."

"Okay, it shouldn't take long," the young Quarian starts typing on the console and finds a match. "Here we go. Rael'Shepard. We don't use nar or vas if you want to change the name."

"Sorry, this is the first time I did this," Tali slumps her head down on the counter. "I just don't know what else I can do after this."

"Okay, right now, the price of changing the name is five hundred credits for two letters to be changed, four hundred fifty credits to add a letter, and two hundred fifty credits for letters to be removed. So do you want to change letters or remove letters?"

"Change letters."

"Okay, what is his name going to be."

"Zaal. Like the Zaal'Koris."

The young Quarian starts typing on her console. As she is type, the sound of the keyboard makes it sound like she is doing something else. Tali just waits for her to get done typing but it takes a while for it. "Okay, I need to know who the parents are."

"Tali'Shepard and Commander John'Shepard."

The young Quarian looks at her like she didn't know what to say. "Ma'am. Do you have any idea what its like to be like this all day and hear that name all the time. Commander Shepard being heard day after day and people are faking papers to have everything free. So unless you have some information about this, then I'm sorry but I can't do anything. You are here by suspended to change the your son's name until we can get this worked up. If you bring him, then I can make the changes." She sits back in the chair and starts typing. She was still in her happy mood. "You can call him; even though it is against rules to contact via omni-tool in the courthouse."

"Thank you for that," Tali opens her omni-tool communication folder and calls for John. After a little while she finally gets to see his face on the holovision part of the communication that way she can see if it was really him. "John, I'm at the courthouse right now and they want you to come down here in order to change our son's name."

J_ohn shakes his head and looks at Tali. "I'm kinda of busy, a customer came in ask to modify a M-358 Talon today and asked if I can do it without any problems. I have to do this, otherwise no food and a place to sleep with me. He is coming to pick it up."_

_"Don't worry about it," Tali could hear Ragan's voice from the background. "I can do it for you. John, I'll do the work for you. And I'll do it for free. So you don't have to pay me. Just go."_

_"Fine, then you owe me," he turns his head towards Ragan. "Just make sure that all eighty mods are installed on that weapon." He turns his head towards his omni-tool, "Tali, I'll be there in ten minutes."_

"Okay, I'll be waiting inside next to," she turns to the counter to see the young Quarian's name on the desk. "Doira's desk. Last name is Golid."

_"Okay, I'll be there. Ragan get this list done. I'm heading out."_

Tali turns the communication link off and walks to the chair. The young Quarian - who is Doira'Golid nar Rannoch - looks at her. Tali just looks at her like something might go wrong. So she just sits down in a chair and waits for John to come in. After ten minutes of waiting, she hears footsteps coming from behind her. She quickly turns around to see who it is and finds it is John walking towards her. She sighs in relief because she thought something was going to happen and she may never know about it; but luckly that never happened.

"Excuse me sir," said Doira, "are you here for something?"

John shakes his head, "I don't need your permission to be here when I need to change my son's name. So can I please sit down next to my wife."

Doira looks at John then at Tali, "I didn't know. You... OH MY GOD, it is you. Your Commander Shepard! Okay, I'm glad you came by. This woman," she points at Tali, "says she is married to you."

"She is married to me. I suggest that you forget about this and start working on this."

"Sorry about that sir. Let me check this." Doira starts typing on the console without looking up at John. "Ah... we are. Yes you are. Okay, then it is safe to change your son's name. Your wife told me that you want to change it to Zaal. Okay let me get the papers that are required to be filled out. It will also tell you that you are required to have three types of proof of your son's existence. Address, work papers - unless below the age of 16 - insurance, and any other papers that have his name with the your names. That is all that is required."

Doira sees John reach in is pocket and pull out three types of papers. "This one is for the address," he gives her a yellow paper. "This one is for insurance," gives her a green paper. "And this one is the birth certificate," he gives her a light blue paper. "Okay, so you hand me the papers that are required for me and Tali to fill out before anything happens."

Doira hands John the papers, "Okay, since you have the proof in paper, you don't have to do number 8A-8. You can skip it unless you want to have proof of this on paper, okay?"

John grabs Tali's arm and they walk to the chairs and start working on the papers. After an hour, they finally get done with it and start reviewing it to make sure everything is alright. "Okay, I think it is done Tali."

Tali gets up and grabs the papers, "Here, I'll take them to Doira. They will have everything done by now... I hope." She gets up and looks to find Doira is nowhere to be seen. She then hears Doira's voice in the backroom.

"Okay, is everything alright. We have the proof and they want this done," Doira's voice could be heard. Tali stays quiet so she can hear the whole conversation.

"Yes, and the social security card is here also. If I'm correct, this will also require us to make sure that nothing is wrong in the system because I heard some people talking about hacking into the courthouse so they can get vital information. Go ask the family if they want the protection, because I don't want them to come to us and say something that falls on the line of identity theft. I don't want that because then that will take at least 4 months to cover up," said a deep male voice. It sounded like it was a Krogan but there were some Quarians that had deep voices like Geil'Dilan and Hullid'Achok.

"Okay, I will," Doira then walks out of the backroom and sees Tali at the counter. "Okay, I just got done talking with my boss and everything is alright but there is one thing that I have to ask you: Would you like the identity theft protection from PAI, Protection Agency of Identity?"

"How much will it cost?"

"It cost you forty-five credits per month, unless you want to go for two hundred credits per year."

"We will have to talk about this. I'm not sure about it though, unless you tell what PAI does to my bondmate," Tali had some concern in her voice. She then motions John over so they can talk about PAI. "John, this woman wants to know if we want to have PAI protect the family's identity. She will explain it."

"Okay, if you pay the forty-five credits for a month, it will only cover small parts like hot checks, credit scores, and other parts that are minor. If you go for the two hundred credits for a year, then everything will be covered. But if you go with the two hundred credits plan, and lawsuit or accidents will raise it up by five credits until the year is over. Once the year is over, then it will go back to the two hundred credits. So you have a tough choice."

"Let me ask you this, what type of plans does this PAI use," John asked, he know what the plans were but he wanted to have someone verify them.

"The plans will cover everything that is minor for the forty-five credit plan or everything that is two hundred credit plan. With one of the plans, you can add anyone that you want into the plan it will not cost you any extra, so this make it better for your family, and it will also keep PAI in check after what happened with the Reaper Invasion. These plans will not only do anything to protect but they are also - what you can call - insurance for identity theft. Once you choice a plan, it will take up to three hours before it gets approved..."

"Approved for what," John said with a worrisome in his voice.

"That is correct. They have to approve it because they have so many people that are using PAI. Turian, Krogan, Rachni, Human, Quarian, Asari, Elcor, Volus, Batarian, and one Prothean. Since the increase of people, it is now required for PAI to see if they will approve you if you buy a plan. If you are not approved, the money will be given back to you. That is all."

"Okay, then we will take the two hundred credit plan."

"Very nice, sir," she starts typing and hands them the information of Rael's name change to Zaal. After a while of typing she raises one eyebrow, "You have been approved. I guess you being the Hero of the Galaxy makes everything right. Okay, for now on, you have to pay two hundred credits to PAI. Since they have so many branches, you can pay at the courthouse or you can find the nearest one at payment."

"Thank you for the time. I hope you have a nice day," Tali and John said at the same time.

"Thank you for coming," she waves at them until they are out of sight. "I hope they have a good time with that identity protection."


	13. Chapter 10: Truth of the Parents

Chapter 10: Truth of the Parents

John and Ragan are in the gym sparring. They are recording it with a small camera so that they can see if they can counter attacks quicker after they watch it. But to John, it was nearly impossible to counter Ragan's moves. Ragan would do biotic backflip kicks and use a new biotic power called Full Pull. Thanks to the Full Pull, it made it impossible to counter because it would make the target stun for a little while after they are pulled all the way to Ragan's position. When he got John in the Full Pull, he would do hard combos that can't be counter. Some of them would do biotic backflip kicks followed by a quick teleport shoulder-to-punch attack. He was hard to counter Ragan's moves. So John had to do something that would get Ragan down. Luckily they had their damage dampeners on hundred percent no damage, making every blow just act like jelly.

After a few hours of sparring, they finally come to the conclusion of they were both hard as hell. They then turned their damage dampeners back to the default setting, 100% damage taken. But they knew it would be long before it resets after hours of sparring. They then look at each other and see Garrus, James, Kaiden, Miranda, Tali, and Zaeed clapping for the demonstration.

Ragan climbs over the ring's ropes and tosses a bottle water at John, who in return caught it. The then look at each other before taking a sip. "You know boy, you are hard a hell to beat but I'm ten times better than you."

"Shut up uncle. You might be harder and faster but you have to use your strength against the opponents," John said before taking another sip of water. Then he pushes down on the nozzle and sits the bottle down. "I want to know something."

"Anything unless it deals with fighting or family."

"That's just it. It deals with family."

Ragan looks at John and then gives a sigh, "Fine, what do you want to know?"

"I want to know why I'm called Shepard instead of Hackett."

"Like I said, he didn't want to ruin his space. Also if you looked at your real mother's maiden name, it was Shepard. You mother was half Japanese, same with your father. Your are a quarter Japanese. Kasumi Shepard - which changed to Kaiba later - was your mother, Kasumi Goto is your cousin. She was related to your mother's brother, Itami Shepard, another half Japanese family member."

"Then why was I lied when Hannah is not my mother?"

"Because your mother didn't want you. Her sister took you in until what happened on Mindoir. After that, Captain - before you made him councilor - Anderson took you in. He took you in because he asked my brother about you and denied the whole thing. Anderson didn't like Steven lying to him so he just forgot about it. And once you were at age 18, you joined the military. Anderson then tried to find out what was going on. He was trying to get proof that you were his son. He got the proof and threatened to go to the Alliance Defense Committee so your father would have to clear this up. But luckily, Anderson didn't do that because then it would not only ruin Steven, but it would also ruin you and himself."

"Okay, but then why did my mother didn't want me?"

"Because she wasn't ready to have the responsibility of it. We had to lie about this and keep the name out. When you were on Mindoir, she had to had Hannah's name changed to Kasumi. And Kasumi's name to Hannah. We did it because we didn't want you to find out the truth. But you still called your Hannah, mom but Kasumi aunt. So when Hannah was killed on Mindoir, she told you that she wasn't your real mother. And the person that was killed on the SSV Malakoff was your real mother. Hannah told you the truth by say that her real name was Hannah but utterly lied when she told you that your real mother was named Hannah."

"Okay, so what you are saying is that the person - my aunt - died on Mindoir was really Hannah. And the person that died on the SSV Malakoff was my real mother but under the false name?"

"Pretty much."

"Did my real mother get married after I was born?"

"What do you think. Of course she did, Sherlock."

"Don't even call me that, and FUCK YOU WATSON!"

Ragan looks at John with wide eyes, "Damn. And I thought cusing a family member with fuck was a bad idea."

Garrus looks at Ragan then shakes his head. "You lied to John, his whole entire life because of what Hackett did. That is so wrong on so many levels."

"At least, I'm not the one that allowed a traitor to live after what happened on Omega, Archangel," Garrus looks at Ragan with shocked eyes. "Don't even think about it Spectre Vakarian. I have my sources everywhere. Just like the Shadow Broker that is now Liara T'Soni."

"How much do you know about us," Garrus then looks at Ragan. "You know who the Shadow Broker is, you know who was the Archangel. What's next?"

"Much more. I know a lot out of this galaxy before you even think of a question. I even know who burnt my village thirty-three years ago," he points at Zaeed. "He knows who I'm talking about." Garrus' mandibles start to vibrate uncontrollably until Ragan spoke again, "But I use this when I need to gain the upper hand or if I need to use it for good. Give me ten minutes and I can start a war."

"Don't take Liara's phase," Zaeed looks at Ragan then points at him, "Last person who said that, got a SMG lounged up in their fucking arse."

"Like I should be afraid of that. I had a grenade lounged up my ass and it nearly exploded if one of my friends didn't knock it out of me with a branch by hitting my head."

John then looks at Ragan and then looks at the others, "I guess it is time to talk about something else before Zaeed, me, Ragan, Garrus, James, and Kaiden start a battle of 'who-did-something-better-than-the-other.'" They all laugh with John.

"So, now you know about your family, Shepard. I hope you're happy," Ragan walks over to the punching bag and starts doing combos. "I hope that I didn't cause any problems."

"You didn't. But I have one quick question: How is Kasumi Goto my cousin?"

"Like I said, she was born under the name of Shepard. But I didn't tell you anything. She left the house and was never using her regular name. Her regular name was Sikura Shepard. But that changed when she became 17 and left a note. She was very smart to leave because her father was an abusive asshole towards her mother."

"Okay, so I know my mother had two siblings and my father is my CO. Boy this is getting better and better every motherfucking second," John then looks at Ragan.

"Yeah, yeah. And this life of yours not what you think. We lied to you so that you don't have to learn it until you were ready. But by the time we tried to tell you, you were gone. It was like you never came back until you were reassigned to the Normandy," Ragan stops punching the punching bag. "I didn't even have the chance to tell you that your family was trying to find you after what happened at Mindoir."

"So anything else you are hiding from Loco," James got up and tackled Ragan so hard the floor shook like an earthquake. "You hide something from my friend, then you are dead."

"I hid it from him because he wasn't ready until he was eighteen, Lieutenant Vega. GET OFF OF ME," Ragan yelled at James with a lot of power. "I had no choice. It's blood on my hands. I tried to play the protector to him and this is what I get. Pain for him. Now this might be sound, but I wanted to tell him because I wanted him to know the truth before it was too late but I never had the chance when I had to protect the Council from assassin or when the our colonies went dark before the Geth invasion."

"Touchy but I don't buy it."

Ragan gives a huff towards John and walks towards the ring. "So what you are saying is you don't buy it. Even when I told you the truth -"

James gets off of Ragan and looks at him after shaking his head. "You need to understand that your nephew doesn't 'buy it' because of the lies in his whole life."

"James, I trust my uncle. Don't be so negative. Don't make me break this fight like I did with Tali and Legion or Miranda and Jack," John then remembered both of those fights on the Normandy after Tali got was found innocent and Legion destroyed the Geth heretics. He also remembered the fight between Miranda and Jack after Jack blew the Cerberus base on Perugia and Miranda had to relocate Oriana - her 'twin' sister by genetics thanks to her father Henry Lawson - on Illium. But even then, he didn't want to have his uncle fight James because if there was going to be words, it would later become blowing someones brains all over the place thanks to tech powers or biotics. He just decided to leave it alone by walks away from them two. "I'm done here. If you want to fight, make sure that the survivor cleans up the mess before I get back down here."


	14. Chapter 11: The Speech

Chapter 11: The Speech

Hackett is outside of the Presidium and is wait for the councillors. Hackett doesn't want this to go bad so he order them to be together at all times. Luckily there are five Alliance Soldiers coming towards him. "Alright, the speech is almost ready. I hope this is a good time to have the one year anniversary right now. After all, we have won. Councillor Anderson, it's good to see you again. So glad John saved you before the Illusive Man killed you."

"It's alright. I hope there is nothing wrong with him. And we did get rid of the most important part of Cerberus. I hope they stay down and die."

"Yes, and John did confirm that. Anyway, you make take your seat whenever you want. I'm not going to force you."

"And who is going to give the speech," Sparatus asked. Sparatus was the Turian councillor and doesn't believe humanity was ready to have a seat on the Council until Saren betrayed them four years ago. But even then, he still had his doubts. Sparatus is the very antagonistic towards John because he thinks humanity needs to prove themselves before anything else, but that changed when the Reaper hit and Sparatus greeted John with open arms to get the Primarch Victus - who replaced the Primarch Ferdorian after a Reaper killed Ferdorian.

"Commander Shepard will the one that will give the speech," Hackett said by getting into formation. "I am also going to do something that a General has requested."

"I hope nothing goes wrong," said the Salarian councillor, Esheel. Esheel replaced Valern after Valern was assassinated by Kai Ling because Thane was killed at the Collector base. Esheel believes in protecting her people before others then protect the other races. She is also very strict when it comes with power of. She thinks lowely over Valern by calling him a weak-minded fool who lead the Salarian race down in a sewage pipe. She is very hostile towards Shepard but not as bad as Sparatus was like before the Reaper Invasion.

"Nothing will go wrong, I got my brother looking into the whole thing," Hackett then turns around and sees Shepard coming up on the platform. "Okay, I think something is wrong. Let me check real quickly."

"Please make sure that you don't have any problems," Shala'Raan, the Quarian councillor, said. She was very helpful for John and Tali when it came with personal problems. She also was the type of person that agreed with the Humans because she understood what needed to be done to have peace.

"This platform is unable to connect to a consciousness. It would be wise to have a seat until Hackett-Admiral returns," said Kronos, the Geth councillor. This synthetic was a helpful synthetic after Legion sacrificed himself to give all Geth platforms free will. Even though Kronos is a Geth Prime, he is still the kindest one that can make sure military personal is dealt with before sending out any investigation.

"Please, leave the Admiral alone, Kronos. He is needed elsewhere," Sparatus said.

"This platform will obey the that order. Very will."

Hackett walks up to John and sees John sitting down on the edge. "Something on your mind, son?"

"You have no idea. I just don't feel right giving a speech to everyone out there after a year of what happened."

"Don't be like that, John. You know what its like and what must be done. If you didn't help the races, where would they be. The Krogan would have lost everything and the war would have been lost quickly. If you didn't have the Geth and Quarians have peace, then everything would end. And if you didn't help find the Prothean weapon, we would have lost the war before he had a chance to do anything. The mercenaries that Aria gave you for the war effort helped us by destroying Reapers, but if you didn't get then we wouldn't be able to help the people that were on other worlds that needed help."

"I see what you're saying... dad. But I don't like it any more than what it should be. At least I know what was at steak but now, I don't even want to think about it." John looks at the sky and sees a MDI-3R Vulture transport coming down. "I guess it is time."

"It is. And son, don't forget anything that I told you. You are a goddamn hero and you need to be treated like one."

Hackett gets up to the podium and looks around the room. "I wish that we could have this at the council chambers but Harbinger destroyed the whole room. So for right now, we are forced to be out here until the council chambers is rebuilt. And before I put our speaker on, I would like to say a few words. Commander John Ryu Shepard is not only a bloody hero but he is the first Human Spectre that fought for us. The Defense Committee and all the Generals have requested him to come up today to have two things done: One is the speech and the other is the promotion they want to give him. This promotion will move him from Commander to Admiral. He has earned this rank due to his serve with the Alliance R&D, one Palaven, Horizon, being a double agent for us, stopping the Collectors, curing the Genophage, making peace with the Quarians and Geth, having the Krogan work together with the Turians, delaying the Reaper invasion but also warning the Batarian colony, stopping ex-Spectre Saren, saving the Council, having the Illusive Man commit suicide, and stopping the Reaper Invasion. He had done all of those in his years of service and is now an honorary Admiral. But you didn't come here to hear me speak about that, you came here to hear his speech. So without any furthermore, I give you Admiral John Ryu Shepard."

John gets up and walks to the podium, he takes a deep breath and then looks around the room. "Thank you all for your service of helping us with the Reaper Invasion. I have a long speech so this will take some time. But before I start it, look around yourselves and see who is in the room you are in," the audience looks around then nods. "Those people are the ones that helped you, me, and other people because they care about one thing: peace.

"I know what you are thinking right now, people don't care about the Vorcha, Geth, Quarians, Humans, Krogan, or the Elcor. But I'm here to tell you, that is wrong. If they didn't fight, we would all be dead. We and here because of them. Those men were here with us because they fought through the impossible and came out victorious. Thanks to them, we live another day. The Krogan helped everyone by making the Reaper start retreating away from our bases. The Quarians and Geth helped by using orbital strikes on the Reapers' weakness. Elcor helped by having people escorted off the battlefield while they are also protecting their army. Vorcha helped by making new weapons and gave us those weapons to test on the battlefield, and they also helped by giving us some support fire when the Reapers were about to destroy our fleets. And the Humans helped by getting every race together to fight the enemy that we were born to defeat, gave everyone proper training with the Turians, and also gave enough resources to protect the people.

"The other races helped by giving every race more weapons and training. Turians helped by doing training sections with the races that needed help. Asari gave us support of new weapons that can be used to kill multiple Reaper ground forces. Volus gave us bombers so that we can destroy the bases. Batarians gave us more transports and started destroying any of the Reapers that are left on the battlefield when our ground troops had to leave. Salarians did the most of the work with the Crucible. The Rachni helped up by doing two things: one was stop making rachni warriors for the Reapers after I gave them a second chance and the other was having the Reaper forces destroyed by controlling dead Reaper forces and using their weapons against the Reapers. Drell went into bases and destroy bases because of their sneakiness. Hanar started working on a new improved Medi-Gel for every race.

"We fought together and we are bond to be with each other until death comes towards us. We are fighting towards a new goal and that new goal will come because - and I quote this from a famous Human named Martin Luther King Jr. from the twentieth century - 'I have a dream'. And that dream is our people will work together and be with each other until we are dead. We are to be with each other, so put aside your petty grudges and grievances, and start working otherwise this will be problematic. We have to work together like we did with the Reaper Invasion and we will work together. I honor this time to all of you to be with each other and understand that peace was given to us a year ago because we won the war.

"A war that was to end before the Protheans were wiped out, but that changed. Every one of us has a duty to do and it's up to you to find out what that duty is. Whether it's helping with the refugees, working on a new weapon to prevent a new threat from coming, or to be with the people that need help. We are to be here today because it was God's choice to have us alive. And it's up to you to choice what God wants you to do. I don't care if you worship the Enkindlers, or different gods, spirits, or ancestors, you have a choice to follow what you must do to get that job done. It is up to you to work with others and be with them until we have nothing else to lose for. But even if we are to lose something, there is one thing that can't be lost: Hope.

"We are to be with the people right now with hope and start thinking for the future. Not for now. The future is what we have, the reason why I say don't look now is because the present is a gift for the day and that gift is to have us alive. We work towards the future. We have to do what it takes to make the next generation have a good time and a good lifestyle before anything bad happens. That is up to you and only to you to make sure that nothing is wrong. We have a future to look forward to and it's time that we start working towards it instead of looking at the past.

"I look at the room and I see Geth and Quarians right now. Their past was brutal but now it's not because they choice to work together and thanks to that, they have their home-world rebuilt. The Krogan, Turian, and Salarians have a grudge but that ended because the genophage has went on far to long and it was time to see if the Krogan were going to do what was right. And now the Krogan are working together with each other. I fought with two Krogans in my lift time: Wrex and Grunt. And each of them have a good head: to rebuild for the the future. And the Batarians and Humans had a grudge going on but that ended when they were warned about the Reapers. Thanks to that, they are now working together to have a new law passed called Shepard's Anti-Slavery Law. The races that had grudges are taking their time to rebuilt for the future and they have worked so hard, that they will continue until it is done.

"Many of you will think that it is a long thing to say but in reality, life is too short to hold anything against the others. We fought an enemy that we thought we were going to die but that changed. We are here because fate has favoured us. And it's up to us to honor that time we have right now," John takes a deep breath and grabs his water bottle. He then looks at the people and gives a smile. "I have this to show you right now. You see life is like water. You pour it down on the ground of soil, it will be absorbed. And once it's absorbed, it can't be retrieved. That is our lives are like. We focus on one thing and forget to that our life is short. But now, it can't be short if we work together. That is all I have to say," he pours the water on the soil to show them what he meant about life. John then walks to a chair that on the back side of the platform and sits down. Hackett gets up and looks at everyone's faces. Then he start to hear them clapping.

"With that, the speech is done. And it is time to give the statue to the people. This statue is for the people that have served and died for us. So without any more, I give you," he motions the transport to come down and bring the statue down on the giant 'x', "Reaper Invasion Memorial. This statue has John Ryu Shepard in the middle holding his M-8 Avenger and all his friends behind him while a Reaper is in front of them. And if you look down at the base, there is two screens that show who served and died during the time. The left one that is below the Reaper shows the people that died during the invasion. The right one that is below John and his friends shows who served that are still alive."

The whole audience gets up and start cheering. After a few minutes of cheering, they start moving out of the room and head back to where they came from. It was good for them to come and show their respect towards the people that have served in the invasion. And it was good for them to come by the statue and pray in their own way.


	15. Chapter 12: There will be a Party

Chapter 12: There will be a Party

Ragan walks up to John who is looking at him with a curious face. "Where the fuck has my bodyguard been," John asked. He didn't see Ragan during the speech but didn't know if something came up.

"There was an assassination attempt towards you. I had to stop it. Three people were in the west sector of the room and they were waiting for you to get ready. So when I saw those three I went to go after them. I made in time and stopped them before they shot their drill round slugs at you. Your luck that I stopped the after they left the room and was going to a different room so they can have a quick escape. Also, they had an illegal weapon at the time called the M-84 Slicer. The Slicer is a new weapon that is not even allowed to be on due to the thermal clip ejection would cause the gun to bust into flames," Ragan explained. He then pointed where he saw them. "I saw them next to that door," the door was in the middle of the wall.

Tali comes up with Garrus, Liara, James, Kaiden, Jack, Javik, and Kolyat; Thane's son, but John doesn't see them so he continues to talk to Ragan like normal. "Thanks for saving my life. I owe you..."

"You owe him? Someone record this before he takes the credit or I lose the memory," Ragan is laughing when Garrus said that. "That's the first time I heard of that and probably the only time."

Tali then grabs John's hand and starts rubbing hit with her two fingers. "Okay, this is new. But I think we need to head to the Normandy. Our children are sleeping at the captain's cabin right now. I think we might want to check them."

John then sighs and walks towards the exit door on the far wall that is behind the platform. "I am reporting to the Normandy. I need to make sure Hackett needs me before we head back to our homes." John opens the door and walks out.

"I hope he doesn't know about the party," Garrus looks at Kolyat. "Any idea if there is a way if he will find out?"

"I don't think so but you never know about him. Sneaky, sly, discrete, and very smart of find out what," Kolyat said, "He's like my father."

Garrus and Kaiden look at him. "Sorry for happened. We should have shot Kai Leng before something got out of hand."

"It's not your fault. You did your best and I'm just happy that he spent the last minutes with me praying for Shepard and the whole crew. I wanted to join but I was a coward to do so. My father taught me in his last minutes, cowards make you stronger when you make the cowards fear you with respect."

Javik look at Kolyat, "It seems that your father knows what was to be said. I didn't know Thane at all but I understand, from the stories I heard, he is a good man that worked until death."

"Anyway, I think we need to focus on the party now. I got Primarch Victus, and the councillors to come with us. I even have some people invited but I'm waiting for a response," Garrus and Liara looked at Ragan with a surprised look. The look made them think something was wrong with him because Ragan never was the type of having things said and done like that. "What, it's creeping me out - the way you are looking at me, I think something is wrong with you."

"No, its just I never heard you say anything like that. Why would you go to all the trouble for to have people there you don't know...," Garrus asked but got interrupted by Ragan.

"I know Victus, Sparatus, Anderson - I served with him -, Shala'Raan - Tali's aunt -, and the others including Urdnot Vibako. Before I was assigned to help John, I had to make sure all the races understood the terms and agreed with them. The councillors were the ones that gave me the job under Spectre authority."

Garrus looks at Ragan then jumps back a few inches, "You're a Spectre? That means we have - let me see, me, you, Tali, John, Kaidan, Liara, Grunt, Wrex, and Kasumi Goto - nine Spectres that are serving for the Normandy? This is interesting."

"Don't get your hopes up in a knot, Vakarian-Spectre," a Geth platform walks up to them. "It is good to see you again Hackett-Spectre or should I call you by something else?"

"Please Kronos, you don't have to. Anyway, are the councillors ready for it?"

"There is 65% of the councillors will not make it. Duilam, the Yagh councillor, has a problem with his people. Eshlee was requested to go back to the Sur'Kesh because a rebellion is about to happen. Fil For, the volus councillor, has been requested to attend his brother's - Pitne For - funeral. Tevos is requested to be back on Thessia because parts of the planet are in serious repair. I will not be able to stay due to Geth are required to be back on Rannoch and help rebuild after Shepard-Admiral destroyed the Reaper Base and made peace between us and the Creators. Anderson will not be coming due to some personal problems with his wife - Kahlee Chambers - and has to resign from the Alliance. Sparatus will not be there because he has to make sure the Hierarchy is working correctly. Moris, the Drell councillor is required to be at the hospital due to the disease. Urdnot Vibako will not be here because he is required to speak with the clan chief leader's ambassador. Kiolmathis, the Hanar councillor, will not be joining because Hanar have a day to 'worship' the Enkindlers. The rest will be there."

"So, Shala'Raan, Creag - the Vorcha councillor -, Vilam - the Rachni councillor-, Martana - the Eclor councillor -, and Ka'hairal Balak - the Batarian councillor- are going to be there. Better than nothing."

"Correct. The councillors that are not going to be there, including me, have brought the gifts over."

Ragan looked at Kronos with eyes narrowed. "Gifts?"

"Yes, because a year ago, we didn't have the proper way of celebrating due to Shepard-Admiral's condition. So we decide to give this to him today. Everyone that served in the Reaper Invasion gave a gift to him. Just make sure he doesn't see them on the third deck of the Normandy."

"I'll make sure of that," Tali said then walked off.

Garrus and Liara looked at Ragan then walked to the door. "We'll make sure everything is alright. I hope you also got the food from Miranda and Jacob," Liara said while walking towards the door.

"Okay."

"We will be leaving soon," Kronos walks to the councillors that are about to leave and motions them away.

Ragan and the rest of the people move out of the room and head towards the Normandy that is docked just outside of the dock that lead towards the room they were at.


	16. Chapter 13: So Now What

**Thanks for the reviews but now is time for me to get some ideas from the readers. Please leave a review or pm me about the story and bring ideas to it. I will see what I can do with the ideas because I want to have the people see this. And if the ideas are negative, then I will not have them in the story. Thank you for your time to read. And I want to make this story the best.**

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><p>Chapter 13: So What Now<p>

John and Tali are at the captain's cabin and watching their triplets sleep. They loved them so much that they wanted them to be with the Normandy during the trip. Since the Normandy has been John's home for more than 10 years, it would be good idea to have them feel the history of the Normandy - except the part of the first Normandy got destroyed by Collectors three years ago. Tali also lived on the Normandy before. For two years on the Normandy then getting married on the Normandy. The Normandy has history.

"Admiral Shepard," Joker's voice is heard over the intercom. "I think you and your wife might want to come down to the bridge right now. I think you are going to like this."

John shakes his head and looks at Tali. "I'll see if someone will watch the children. Right now, we are needed at the bridge. Don't know why and I don't care."

Tali giggles at him. "I'm sure what ever is going to happen, it must be important because I told EDI not to have us distrubed unless it is very important. And It must be important for Joker to contact us."

"Okay, but I don't think it is because there is a reason why we call him Joker. He makes jokes. He can't take his job the right way. He sometimes does his job. So really I don't know if I should go down there and get harassed or go see what he wants."

"I suggest you go down there. Besides, if he tries anything, you can just court-martial him for insubordination," Tali was right about that. Joker has a bad record of having a horrible mouth.

"I might want to do that but he is a good friend. Better than some of the lackeys that are trying to figure out how to shoot a weapon."

Tali laughs at him then rolls her eyes. "Don't be like that. Some of those lackeys are on this ship." She then walks to the door. "I'm going to Deck 3. I don't want you go."

"Okay, fine. What, you think I'm going to disobey?"

"Yes, because you allowed Mordin to destroy Maelon's work. You disobeyed the Illusive Man when he wanted to have David Archer stay in Project Overlord and have the Collector Base secured. Do I need to go on?"

John bows his head down and looks at the floor. "No. I regret about Maelon's work being destroyed. Urdnot Bakara shouldn't have died or at least that is what I would say if it wasn't thanks to Mordin disobeying my orders, he saved the information before he deleted the local copy."

"True. And I don't want you to disobey my orders, we might be married but I still have something for you later, John."

"Great."

Tali walks to the door and walks out. Thanks to the door being automatic, its easy to just walk out. After a few seconds, the door closes leaving John and the triplets alone in the room. John can hear the elevator door open and then close. He didn't know what to do but to go see Joker. So he walks out of the room and heads towards the elevator. He presses the down button - the only button - and waits for it to come. When it comes up, he walks in and presses the button for deck 2. After a while of wait - more like five minutes - for the elevator to reach its destination, the doors open and John walks out.

"Admiral, Joker would like to speak...," Traynor stated but then realized why John is down here.

"I already know about it," John walks down the CIC and to the hallway. He then sees EDI's mobile platform working on the airlock. John didn't think about it too much but he didn't know what was going on. "EDI, why are you messing with the airlock?"

"Shepard, I am making sure that nothing is wrong with it when we get back to Palven, then Tuchanka, then Earth, then Thessia, and finally Rannoch. I have to make sure nothing is wrong with it because there are some cases that the decontamination process would do a lag," EDI had a way of explain things and hide something without anyone knowing.

"Okay," John continues to walk down the hallway until Joker turns his chair around. John doesn't think of that much but something was off. "What are you doing?"

"Greeting my CO. And also to tell you that Shala'Raan is coming to see you right now."

John's eyes widen. "What, when did that happen?"

"About the time that I was stuck on the Normandy due to my disease. Around fourteen hundred hours yesterday. Why are you asking?"

"I asked because I wasn't sure if that was important news you were talking about."

"No, that is only half of it. I got a message from your Hackett. He wants to see you on Deck 5 in thirty minutes. It deals with the Normandy."

John shakes his head after placing his hand on his face. "Okay, fine. I'll go down there. But there better not be something wrong."

"Trust me, Admiral. Nothing is wrong. I hope you enjoy the chat. Shala'Raan should be here in forty minutes."

"Great, thanks for heads up." John walks all the way back to the elevator and press Deck 5. After fifteen minutes, the door finally opens. Hackett is there, sparring with James. John walks towards the shuttle and watches them. James tries to uppercut Hackett but gets thrown to the floor the same way John sparred with James after Mars.

Hackett turns around and sees John standing with his back on the shuttle. "Good to see you made it. I didn't expect you to be here this quickly. That is why I told Joker thirty minutes. I guess someone got the elevator working correctly."

"You got that right. So what is it that you wanted to tell me?"

"I wanted to tell you that the Normandy is no longer Alliance frigate. So it is yours that you see fit. Also, the crew that is stationed here will stay here until the retire or discharged. I wanted you to know that. And if there is a mission that will involve the Normandy, the Alliance Council will send you a message and ask if it's okay to take the Normandy to a mission for a little while."

John then motions James to leave. "Okay, anything else, father."

"Just one more. Since you are now an Admiral and the Quarians have agreed to help us become better allies with other species, they want you to be part of the Admiralty Board. Shala'Raan will be here to explain that part. I can't explain it because I haven't accepted the Admiralty Board's offer."

"Great, so it's an offer that I don't want. Politics. I hate them. They are the weeds of the galaxy. And I told that to Commander Bailey."

"So I heard. And I believe you are right about them being the weeds of the galaxy. I mean, look at them. Before the war, they were focused on everything - that is excluding the Council towards us. But now after the war, they only care about themselves. Sparatus is having some trouble with the Turian Hierarchy because of Victus is trying to overrule the Krogans on Palaven."

"I see what you are talking about. And I think that will be the death of him because with the Krogan, the war wouldn't have be won. We would be like the husks the Geth, Collectors, and the Reapers had."

"I agree," Hackett strokes his beard before continuing, "but even then, the Krogan are still mad about the whole Genophage."

"The Genophage is cured, why would they still be mad about it?"

"Because the person that cured it was a Salarian and, in the Krogan eyes, a Salarian can't be seen curing it."

"So they wanted one of their own to cure it. That is very stupid reason."

"I agree."

The elevator opens up and Shala'Raan comes out of the elevator with the triplets. "I hope you don't mind, but I wanted to make sure the 'grandchildren' were safe."

John smiles at her, "It's okay. Hackett told me about the offer the Admiralty Board has given me. But I want to know more about it."

"Of course. The Admiralty Board is only used when martial law is active. When martial law is active, all crimes go to the Admiralty Board. The only way the Admiralty Boards has full power of the government issues; such as economic debts settings, is when the Conclave orders the Admiralty Board to do so for the sake of war. But even then, the Conclave needs the Admiralty Board to vote on that part unless the Conclave is in having troubles with an Admiral or the Conclave Speaker is the also the Admiralty Board Speaker. But since Rael'Zorah is court-martial and exiled, there is no Admiralty Board Speaker. So it falls to me, even though I'm a councillor."

"Okay. I'll think about it. But another question, it is allowed to have a parent and child in the Admiralty Board?"

"No, why?"

"Because if Hackett accepts, then I can't take it. He is my father."

"WHAT?! HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE? YOU DON'T HAVE THE SAME LAST NAME LIKE HIM?"

"That's because I didn't marry his mother and his mother gave him to her sister. And since her sister took care of him, he was stuck with the name," Hackett explained very quickly. Quicker than Ragan's way of explaining the whole family to John after they sparred on Rannoch.

"Sounds like Tali, but Rael and Abalia were bonded. So Tali had to have Zorah for the last name because by law, once you bond with someone, you have to have the clan name. Even the children," Raan explained and then looked at Hackett. "I hope you both are what you say you are. Not politicians."

"Both of us are not," they both said.

* * *

><p><strong>Okay thanks reading the story but it is far from complete. This story might be up to the 100 chapters but even so, I would like to know what you think should be added to the story. I know people don't like it but it's better to have suggestions than to go on reading something and say "This is not what I expected." So please pm me or leave a review with some ideas you have. I would love the ideas so I can see what I can do for the story later on chapters. I want this to be for you, not for me.<strong>


	17. Chapter 14: The Party part 1

Chapter 14: Party Time part 1

Music is blasting through the ceiling that made Raan jump up. John looked up when the music got louder and louder. Steven looks at John and then lets out a small laugh that no one hears it. Raan looks at John then gives a sigh. "Don't worry you two, I'm sure nothing is wrong. My brother will make sure nothing is wrong. Now if he has his electric guitar, then there is a chance he is playing some songs."

"I didn't know uncle Ragan played the guitar," John was confused. "So there is now are two people in the family that does instruments."

"Yes, you and him. I use to until my piano got destroyed," Hackett laughed when the triplets started giggling. "I'll take the children from you Shala. I'm sure they would like to see me for the first time."

"Sorry but Tali wants them and John on deck 3 right now."

John walks to the elevator and looks at them. "Aren't you coming father and 'mother'-in-law?"

Shala and Steven give out a big laugh then look at John. "We are, we will be there soon. I have some important matter to attend to down here. Something about the shuttles coming. Victus and his son - I still have no idea why you stopped him from climbing the bomb on Tuchanka -, some other politic influences like Daro'Xen, Han'Gerrel, Kal'Reegar, and Zaal'Koris will be coming."

"Okay, I don't know why they are coming."

"Go see your uncle and find out," Shala gives John the triplets. "And make sure nothing happens to my 'grandchildren', I want them to live a good life."

"Shala, they will live a good life."

"I hope so. I don't want them to be like Rael'Zorah."

"Rael deserved what was coming to him."

Shala looks at him and then places her hand on his shoulder. "I believe you."

"Anyway, I'm heading to deck 3. I hope you have some time to come up soon."

"I'll be up there soon. Around five minutes, not sure about Shala here," Steven walks around and finds a new weapon lying on James' station.

"I'll be there after I talk to your father. I need to know if he will accept the position."

"Okay." John press the button for deck 3 but something is wrong with it. Instead of going to deck 3, it goes to deck 1, then 2, 4, 5, and finally gets to 3 in thirty minutes. "Great, something needs to be fixed." He walks out when the elevator finally stops on deck 3, turning around the corner, he sees Ragan with a guitar. "Great, so this is the first time I seen you with a guitar. You're not going to kill a thresher maw with that like you did with that sword you had one time?"

"No. Why would you ask that? I did that because the thresher maw was about to kill some of my squad."

"I asked because you are know to kill anything with whatever your hands has."

"Okay, what ever. Just because I killed a thresher maw with my sword and a full Batarian foot hold supply lines of illegal weapons all by myself, and you want to say that I was abandoned by my squad on Tuchanka seven years ago."

"Okay. So what are you doing?"

"Waiting."

"Waiting for what?"

"Just waiting until... three... two... one. NOW GARRUS!"

The whole crew comes out of the main battery compartment. "What are you doing here," John was confused of what was going on until he saw Tali coming up. "This must be good."

"John, time for the celebration...," Joker comes up with Victus and Dalatrass Linron.

"NO, get her off of this ship - my ship. I don't want someone that questions my actions about the Krogan on this ship at all when the Krogan are peaceful. I told her not to contact this ship or get allowed on this ship. She is a fucking bitch."

"Please Admiral. I didn't know that you were telling the truth. Please forgive me. I didn't want this to happen at all. I regret it. The Krogan have a right to live," the Dalatrass had a way of hiding her feelings but this time she didn't want to hide them because John was speaking the truth about her trying to have the Krogan killed by the Genophage.

"I forgive you for you stupid actions and deal you tried to give me," Wrex and Wreav come in with an angered look towards the Dalatrass. "And you might want to explain it to them."

"That can wait...," Wrex walked past the Dalatrass. "Right now, it's the one-year anniversary of the End of the Reaper Invasion."

"Of course," Shala walks up to John and gently takes the triplets in her arms. "I'll take them away from the party if Wrex, Wreav, and Grunt - if he is coming - are going to stay."

"Take them to the Starboard Lounge. No alcohol is there and I don't want my children to have problems before they start talking. I'll be there myself. I need to spend some time with them," John walks up to Tali and takes her by the hand.

Ragan starts playing My December by Linkin Park, "This is my December... This is my time of the year...," Every looks at Ragan when he starts singing. When Ragan then stops and looks at them. "What? Never seen a guy with a guitar play and sing at the same time."

Shala shook her head, "It's not that. I-I-I'm hearing your voice and it's beautiful." Everyone nods their head in agreement. "And we want you to continue singing. This is probably the best thing I heard from a Human. A voice that sounds like war has never touch it. And something that is good."

Joker nods his head. "Yeah, when I heard that you sang, I never expected this. A voice that is touched by a god."

Garrus laughs at them, "Please, he might have the voice but My December requires two people to sing. But enough of that, I'm going to the food table." Garrus walks to the food table and takes the cover off of it. When the cover touches the floor without any wrinkle, Garrus grabs a plate and moves to the other side revealing all kinds of food. "Taco, pizza, chimichangas, burritos, salads, noodles, bacon, beans, peas, and other things that will make your mother weep for days end if she didn't have food."

"Garrus, be care what you say. I lost my mother when I was seven and Steven was fourteen years old," Ragan said. "Before she died, she got food for a upcoming party that she died on the same day."

"Sorry, I didn't..." Garrus then looks at Ragan who laughing at him. "What the hell man?"

"I just wanted to do that."

"You are like Joker, Junior." Garrus laughs but then grabs his right side of his face. "Oh, spirits. It still hurts after three years."

"Now, can I please get back singing?" Ragan looked around to see if they were going to agree; which they did. "Thank you." He gets his guitar tuned. "This is my December... This is my time of the year... This is my December... This is all so clear... This is my December... This is my snow covered home... This is my December... This is me alone...

And I..." John gets up and walks towards Ragan and helps him sing. "Just wish that I didn't feel there was something that I missed... And I... Take back all the things I said that made you feel like that... And I... Just wish that I didn't feel there was something that I missed... And I... Take back all the things I said to you...

"And I give it all away..."Ragan starts playing the guitar while John grabs his Gibson. John then looks at Tali and points at her indicating that the song is for them, "Just to come home to... Give it all away... To have someone to come home to..." The song then goes in a guitar solo and everyone starts cheering. Ragan then stands up and speaks normally, "This song is for John, Tali, Zaal'Shepard, Rena, and Reala. This is what they wanted, to come home to each other and have a wonderful time. May God bless them."

After the solo, Ragan sits down and starts singing again, "This is my December... These are my snow covered dreams... This is me pretending... This is all I need...," Ragan then places his guitar down and grabs his acoustic guitar. "And I...," John then gets his regular guitar that has a name on it. "Just wish that I didn't feel like something is missed... And I... Take back all the things I said that made you feel like that... And I... Just wish that I didn't feel there was something that I missed... And I... Take back all the tings I said to you...

"And I give it all away... Just to come home to... Give it all away... To have someone to come home to...

"This is my December... This is my time of the year... This is my December... This is also clear...

"And I give it all away... Just to come home to... Give it all away... To have someone to come home to..."

Ragan then stops playing his guitar and looks around at everyone's expression. He was shocked to see them in complete awed. Course, his voice was very good at singing and he didn't want to admit it. "Okay people time to party," Joker was the first one to say that after getting out of the shock.

Tali walks away from the party area and into the Starboard lounged with Raan. John follows them into the room and sits down to relax next to Tali who has the children in her arms.


	18. Chapter 14: The Party part 2

Chapter 14: The Party part 2

Raan and Tali sit down at the sofa and look out of the window. They always did this when they were at the Migrant Fleet - course, they were only allowed to do that when they weren't much to do. Tali always thought it was good for them to see the stars every time they had shore leave on the major ship, Ajuria - the Admiral Ship. John is with the triplets while Raan and Tali are watching the stars and seeing shuttles coming in to the cargo bay. "Auntie, I have a question. How did my father survive the attack on the Aliera?"

"I thought you knew," Raan looked at Tali. "He basically used a thermal and breathing cancelling by having his CO2 scrubs offline. When he did, that, he was 'presumed' dead because no pulse to the heart but the body can go up to 5 minutes without any oxygen. But since he cancelled it, he basically had it not showing. That is one way he faked his death. The other way was he used a decoy on the Aliera."

John looks at Tali and then looks at Raan. "So what you're saying is that the racist father-in-law faked his death so that Tali did all the work without telling anyone about what he really did?"

"Correct. I don't know how but this is hard to believe. He faked his death when Cerberus wanted his project to use the Geth's religious matter against anyone in war. He gave a fake code to the ship – which was voice activated – and caused the ship to crash land on an asteroid," Raan then takes a deep breath, "He did that because he wanted to protect Tali but in reality, he was harming her and others."

"Glad to know that. Seems like a train wreck," John then places his index finger from his left hand in Raela's hand and start wiggling his finger so that she can get the motion of how a finger works. "I still don't like Rael being alive. He should have died when my uncle…"

"Which uncle," Raan asked. "Do you mean Ragan?"

"Not Ragan. I didn't know he was part of my family until Admiral Hackett told me that Ragan is his brother and then told me that he –Hackett still—was my father. I was talking about military because he have something called Uncle Sam back on Earth and the colonies."

"Uncle Sam," Tali asked like she never heard of it. "Who or what is Uncle Sam?"

"Uncle Sam is a poster or advertisement that the Humans used so they can have people join the military. Most of them were used during wars like the second World War or the First Contact War," Raan must have studied about Human culture because she knew that much. "It was also used to have political power to the United States of America, or USA, President because the President was called the Commander-in-Chief… well except one of them and that was Barack Obama."

John laughed when he heard that. He was trying to hold it in until Ragan came in with Hackett. Both of them had food for the whole room. "Glad you made a joke Raan because that is funny for it's so true."

"What did we miss," Ragan asked. He raised an eyebrow when Tali and John looked at him and pointed at Raan. "Don't point at her when you have three – in your case John – and one – in your case Tali – fingers pointing at you." Ragan and Hackett placed the plates down on the table that is close to the sofa and grabs the drinks that was behind Ragan's back - due to a shelf-like device that was strapped to his person. Ragan then places the drinks on the table next to the food and sits down after Hackett grabs a chair and sits down in front of the window but facing towards John.

"Raan told us a joke. About Obama," John tried to hold his laughter but it was getting harder to hold it in until he saw Ragan's face turn red.

"Don't even dare say that name. That man shouldn't have been president at all for what he did. Terrorist dealings, taking taxpayer money to support other countries, going on vacation every week, and allowing ISIS to rule everything in 2016 until the second Civil War broke out," Ragan never like Obama because of that but there was more to it. He didn't want to hear Obama's name at all because of the pain that he suffered. "Plus, it was his lackeys that caused my village to burn down. Thanks to him being supported by terrorist and those terrorist burnt my village; I was homeless for two years. He still had supporters after his time from office and most of the supports worshiped him like a fucking god."

"Okay, let's don't talk about that then. There might be some problems brewing in you that I don't want to know about." Raan then places her hands on Zaal's forehead and gently strokes it. "Why change his name from Rael to Zaal?"

"Because I don't want any of my children named after a terrorist parent because if people saw the name, it would ruin his life," John then grabs a burrito and starts eating it.

"That seems reasonable. I'm here for the children, not for the party," Hackett looked at Raan. "I'm sure you are here for the same thing, Councillor Raan?"

"Yes. I want to be with Tali really. Plus it was time for me to spend some time with the family. I needed to get away from the Admiralty Board. Gerrel and Koris are talking about having a Geth server destroyed after a bomb was founded. I didn't want to be in the middle of it because I want the Geth to live with us and help more."

"Good to know. So what are your plans, now brother," Hackett didn't know what Ragan was going to say but he had a feeling of what his plans were going to be. He always thought of Ragan as the type that wouldn't retire from the military life and he knew if he retired, then something was wrong.

"Steven, I'm retiring from the Alliance and being a Spectre. I have some problems right now like radiation poisoning. I'm slowly dying and it's getting aggressive. So it's time for me to quit the fighting life. I was thinking of helping John with his little business on Rannoch – modifying weapons, shield, biotic implants, and other things that help with war efforts; will upcoming ones if it comes to something worse than the Reapers."

Steve looks at Ragan and shakes his head. "You earned it because you were the first one to find a way to counteract the Geth units at the Citadel during the Battle of the Citadel. Getting new weapons for a ship that are ten times more powerful than the chain gun on a dreadnought. Plus, being our little spy in Cerberus."

"I did it because I wanted to end Project Titan before it became a nightmare. Project Titan was creating a new Reaper from the technology that was still intact after the Collector Base was destroyed," Ragan grabbed a glass of water from behind him and takes a small sip. "But luckily, that had to change when a certain Turian named Archangel helped me destroy the Reaper with bombs. I saved the galaxy for one time but it wasn't what I wanted to do all the time. All I did was just mad Cerberus mad as hell."

"Can we please stop getting off topic," Tali and Raan said in unity, "We are to spend some time with the children, not talk about the past."

"Good point Tali," Steven looked at John. "And you must have some plans."

"I do, dad. I always have plans. I'm like the Illusive Man, have plans for everything. Right now, my plans is just do what I need to do to help my family. If ever they need me, they can call me via omni-tool," John takes his finger out of Raela's hand and starts rubbing his hand on her arms. "I just want my family to be happy right now."

"At least you're not like me, failed to protect a family," Ragan stated out while covering his face with his hand.

"I know what happened. Your wife and two children got burnt to death in Japan. But I'm not going to have that happen. I won't allow it because I love Tali with all my heart and she loves me with hers as well."

"Glad that you both love each other. I just hope that you keep the love going," Steven then grabs a chili-dog from the plate and gives it to Ragan. "I don't like the way this looks with the green mold on it," he whispers in Ragan's ear.

"Mold, okay. I'll go see Jacob and Miranda about this," he winked indicating that he understood the code. Ragan then gets up and walks out of the room.

"I just want to say that it's nice to have you here, son. Your mother would be proud. I miss her too much," Steven was the type of person that respected the people that died and wanted to give other people – that were related to them – some words of encouragement.

"Why didn't you marry her," Tali had to have a query about it.

"Because I was a coward and I didn't want to be held responsible for anything other than trying to have some life of my own that I would fail later on in my older years. But you can see how that came out."

"I see, but now it's not too late to make it up to him," she knew what she said was a complete lie. She just wanted to see if Steven was going to agree with her on that lie.

"It's too late because she died by an assassin on the SSV Malakoff. She was killed by a legendary assassin named Shadow – that was his alias because he is hard to track. I regretted every day not asking her to marry me. I was going to ask her out on another date then purpose to her but that assassin ended that train of thought."

"I see what you mean," Tali then understood it. It was hard for her to understand that a few weeks ago Steven Hackett was John's father and John was lied all his life because of what Hackett did but then that changed after Hackett came clean a few weeks ago.

"So what are the names of my grandchildren," Steven asked with some pity in his voice. He was trying to get over what happened.

"The oldest is Raela, then it goes to Rena, the Zaal," John said instantly. He wasn't think about it until he realized that Hackett was hiding something. "Something your hiding, dad?"

"Yes but you don't have to worry about it anymore. I have nothing else to do."

"Okay. Raela is on the right side, Rena is in the middle, and; of course; Zaal is the inside. They are only two months old."

"That's good to know. So what else can you tell me about them? Like what were the ways that you had them in your life: adoption or amino acid charity?"

"There was a Salarian that came by my apartment. He told us about an old friend of mine – Mordin Solus – and gave us some pills that Mordin was working but failed to complete. Luckily the Salarian worked on the pills and stated that Tali can get pregnant when we take the pills. A Dextro and Levo. And we had only used one from each DNA type."

"So this is the first time that a Levo and Dextro had sexually relations and had children. That is wonderful news." Hackett then looked at the clock and sighed. "I hope your both happy because John, the Alliance wants you stationed on Rannoch. But they wanted to me to tell you that you are there for reporting to the Council and the reports will only be allowed every month. Giving you time with your family before and after you give your report to what the council wants. And they want to know what is required to have a best effective military."

"I won't let you done but I don't know. I might turn down that job by retiring form the military," John looks at Tali. "I want to be with my love for a long time and I will do anything to be with her."


	19. Chapter 14: The Party part 3

Chapter 14: The Party part 3

Steven looks at the door and sees Ragan is coming in with the guitar. John, Raan and Tali look at him with wide eyes. Steven is shaking his head while having his face covered by his right hand. Ragan then places the guitar down and grabs a glass of water off the table. "Sorry but I have been singing for three hours straight. I didn't even think," Ragan takes a sip of water after his hoarse voice starts to crack, "you would be here for that long. So what I miss. I'm sure Kasumi would love to tell me."

John then smiles, "Kasumi, you can come out now." He is still smiling until Kasumi uncloaks herself and looks at both of them. "We knew you were here for a while."

"But how did you find out," she was very curious.

Ragan looked at her and gives a smile that runs form one ear to the other, "Because it's easy to find out a cloaked figure like a Geth Hunter from Rannoch. It is easy to see through the cloak and find it moving while it's cloaked. When it moves, the background is off by three point seven nine centimeters."

"I just wanted to see what the children looked like because I haven't seen them yet," Kasumi wasn't lying. During the two months the triplets were born, she didn't see s them until today. It wasn't even that bad to her but she wanted to see them for the first time. "Okay so I just wanted to see them and wanted to know them as well."

Hackett looked at her and shook his head, "Kasumi, you're a master thief and infiltrator, why didn't you see them when they while my son and his wife were at the Citadel?"

"Because I don't want to cause any problems. And I didn't think it would be nice for them to find out that I had to hack into their security to get to them. I didn't want that so I just left that idea."

John then looks at Tali and gives her a nod to indicate that it's alright to have Kasumi look at them. Tali then let go of the children and allows Kasumi to see them. "You may see them cuz…"

"Thanks. Oh, they are so precious," she looks at them with wide eyes. "I can't believe my cuz got them a wonderful woman and now a family is in the making after this generation. So who are they?"

"We have Raela, Rena, and Zaal. Two girls, one boy," John then looks at Raan. "I'm just has happy with this many because I have one boy that can continue my legacy with my last name. That's all that matters." Raan then sighs and looks back at him.

"That there would be something I disagree with."

"Raan that was a joke I made. I don't care if my legacy continues. All I want is to live with Tali for the rest of my life. If she dies before me – which I forbid – I want to have her grave buried by the sea side and when I die, I want to be buried next to her."

"Auntie, I'm hoping that we can avoid this for another time," Tali said without taking her eyes off the children.

"Of course," Raan walks up to Ragan and pinches his butt. On instinct he jumps up and looks at her.

"What was that for? Did I do something wrong? Because in Japan – where I was born – it's a crime and I find it against my ways," Ragan looks at Raan with heated eyes that looked like lava burnt into the pupils.

"I didn't know but on our planet it means that we like someone that has something that is interesting," Raan walked past Ragan and left the room.

Steven looks at his younger brother and gives a smile that lasts only for a quick second. "I see someone likes you, brother."

Ragan walks towards the sit, "She may like me but I don't have those types of feelings. My type of feelings are for friend-zone only area. Besides, I don't really know if I can love anyone after what my village went through. Hell, I'm just lucky that I survive the whole thing but I failed at protecting my wife and two children. I just don't know if I can love anyone."

"Ragan, that was years ago. You need to put it away," Steven looks at Ragan, "It wasn't your fault for anything. Your wife and your children don't want you to blame yourself. And I'm sure you can love someone that you will like. I can see it from Raan, she is in love with you. But you are just being hard to get."

"Hard to get? No, I'm just… I'm just trying to get over the whole thing of what happened. I'm not going to do that…"

"Uncle, you need to do something about it. She loves you and you want to be with someone," John stated.

"Stay out…"

"No, you listen to me, I'm putting what I know about love. If she loves you for who you are, then you should try it. No one was in love without being a little brave." John then looks at Tali. "I regretted not telling Tali that I loved her on the first Normandy before the Collectors attacked. But after Cerberus rebuilt me and the Illusive Man – or I would call him TIM – gave me the dossier about Tali. My first thought was go after her and get her on the ship. And when she was placed on trial, I defended her by giving evidence of events and telling the Admiralty Board that the trial was about their war towards the Geth. And after we got done with the trial, she wanted to speak with me. I told her how I felt and she said that she felt the same way." Tali blushed when she heard John said that. She didn't know if he was doing this to encourage Ragan or to make her feel embarrassed.

"Okay, so what's your point?"

"My point is that you need to see if you can love her like I do with Tali because I think Raan loves you more than anyone else. She isn't bonded with anyone and she told me six months ago that she is interested in someone that knows about life more than anyone else does by experience and have talent when I asked her about her being lonely. She told me she wanted some that was in the music field and has a knack of modifying weapons."

"So basically she wants me," Ragan looked at John. "But I see your point. Like you said, 'No one was in love without being a little brave.'" He gets up and walks out of the room.

Steven looks at John and coughs, "John, I have to go because I need to mobilize the Fifth Fleet for any slaver runs that might happen. I wish you the best of luck to having a family."

"Thank you dad," John then looks at Kasumi. "What?"

"Nothing," she said. "But you might want to see who is about to go to sleep."

Steven walks out of the room just before John felt Tali's head land on his shoulder. The only thing that came to his mind is getting them to the first deck. "Mind if you help me with the triples. I'll get Tali so that you don't have to do the heavy lifting."

Kasumi looks at him and gives a soft laugh that no one hears. "Sure, after all, she is sleeping with you."

John gave a chuckle from that joke. "Okay." He grabs Tali then places her in bridal position. Kasumi grabs the triples and walks out of the room followed by John.

* * *

><p><strong>Authors Note: Say what? Shala'Raan wants to be with Ragan? That's a shocker. And Ragan doesn't want her, that there is so cold. And what might happen but I don't know.<strong>

**Leave a review of any idea that you have (MUST BE POSITIVE) before you exit the story. I would like it to have something for the readers, not for me.**


	20. Chapter 15: Shala and Ragan Admit It

Chapter 15: Shala and Ragan Admit It

Ragan and Shala are looking out of the Cargo Hold window that is overseeing the Armory. They both understood what it is like to be here than working with some stranger that is new. Shala wanted to admit she had feelings towards Ragan but the way she sees it is that he doesn't want to talk about it. The pain that he went through after he lost his wife and two daughters was showing up. It has been years since it happened. He was 20 when his wife was died. He regretted that day for there on stating to himself 'I want to save them badly but I failed.' Shala was looking at Ragan, who had his hands behind his back and had stone cold glare.

"Ragan, I wanted to know more about you… if it's alright with you," she didn't want to be the type that made him unsettled. But she could sense that he didn't want to talk about anything but she also go a sense that he would talk about something.

"What do you want to know," he asked with a weak voice. He was the type that didn't want to show weakness at all but today was the anniversary of when his wife, children, and village was burnt. The same day of the anniversary of the end of the Reaper Invasion. He hated this day but he also loved it because the greatest threat of the galaxy died.

"I want to know what happened to you when joined the N7," she bowed her head hoping that she didn't make him discomfort.

"I joined the N1 when I was 19. I was the best of the best solider for a one year start. I had to work my way up. When I was 20, that terrible incident happened that made me the brutalist person you ever see. I got done with the N6 and graduated to N7 because of my works of ruthlessness and destruction to enemy front and back lines. I was the first one that had to make plans to infiltrate into enemy territory and sabotage anything that can give us an advantage against the enemy.

I didn't like my way I had to do it but it got done. My life is not what it seems to be. I had to remember the pain of all the people that died in my village so that I can get the people ready to attack. The first order I gave, cost me nearly everyone in my squad. I was the only survivor. Councillor Anderson helped me by getting everything done for me then start mobilizing the squad until the bomb blew up. Anderson was about half a mile away from my position and I had to find a way to get to him. We then got compromised. An N7 Blade Division Shadow – like me – betrayed us. He planted the bomb and my whole squad was killed because of Kai Leng."

"I'm sorry that you lived through that. I didn't know I touched a nerve…"

"Raan…"

"Please call me Shala."

"Okay… Shala, you didn't touch a nerve. I was made tougher because of that. Thane told me before he died, 'The path of revenge ends with two graves. One for yourself and one for you victim. But if you let some else deal with them, then you won't have the blood. Use what happened against your enemy and see if you can't do it in revenge.' I respected that and I grew to the words."

"I didn't know Ragan. It must have been hell for you to see the whole squad. Tali and John know how it's like."

"Tali lost nearly everyone but Kal'Reeger on Haestrom. She doesn't know about pain of losing a squad…"

"It wasn't about the squad for Tali. It was about the person she admired the most. He was killed before she went to her pilgrimage. Kiald'Tuidal vas Rayya, was the person she admired until she saw John and fell in-love with him."

"Shala, I didn't know…," he bows his head and takes a deep breath. "I didn't know that happened. I was only told of the recent years. Since Saren to the Reapers."

"I don't know what else to tell you seyna."

"Seyna? What is seyna?"

"I should have used that word. You don't love me. I-I-I'm not sure if you do for… uh… goodness, it's hot in here."

"Shala, I'm not sure if I can love someone after what happened. I'm thrity five years old and I'm still getting over the pain of my wife and daughters dying right in front of me."

"Ragan, I'm sure you can find some to love, you will find a way. No matter what…"

"Thanks," he walks towards the elevator that is behind him. "I'm sure you're right about find someone to love. I know you will to."

"I just did."

"That's good for you."

"It's you, Ragan. I've seen your reports. How you dealt with the Batarian ring with no violence. The engines proportion systems are ten times better. Tali told me a lot about you. And the way you sang, it was beautiful. I want you to know that if you need me…" She saw a quick streak of blue and next thing she knows Ragan is kissing her on the lips.

"I understand that. But this is the only way to show that I love you. I can't do anything else. I've been hiding my feelings because I was afraid of what might happen. I don't want to see people that are close to me die. I can't live myself without any one. I have a family and I'm glad that I have several people that love me."

Shala smiled and gave him a big hug. "Thank you for admitting the truth. I can tell if people are hiding something from other people. I don't want that to end." She squeezes him tight and then passingly kisses him on the lips.

Zaeed comes out of his room and sees them. Ragan breaks from the kiss and sees Zaeed's face is in complete shock. Ragan then motions him away and Zaeed returns back in his room. Ragan then went to the control panel and blocked it with a security code for thirty minutes. "I hope you aren't trying anything to my door, Ragan. Shepard would get guddamn mad at you for hacking into…"

"Shut the fuck up Zaeed. I'm doing this because I want some time alone with Shala." Ragan then walks back to Shala and then starts fiddling with her brown hair. "You know, you got the best hair in the galaxy?"

"Ragan, I'm sure there others that have better than mine."

"No really, I have touched a lot of women hair and none of them are as soft as yours is. Yours is so soft that I can make a pillow out of it."

Shala giggled at him and walked towards the door that led to the Engineering compartment. "Should we go to your room and finish this."

"I'm sure as thinking of it."

"Good, then let's head towards your room."

Ragan walks to the door and motions Shala towards the stairs. Down there on the bottom floor after a few seconds of following him, the come to a wall that Ragan knows. He gets up close and punches in a code on the control panel and the wall starts moving away. "This is like something I never seen, Ragan."

"Of course it new room that they had to add because I have been known to scream in the middle of my sleep. Nightmares of the Reaper Invasion."

"I'm sure I can get that off with a few things. One of them is sleeping with…" she grabs his hand and they walk towards the bed, "you."

"Shala, I have a good feeling with this."

Shala takes her hands and unstraps Ragan's belt and takes his pants off. She then takes his shirt to reveal twelve abs. "Oh, Keelah. I think I'm going to enough a powerful man with me." Ragan couldn't help it but smile.

"I'm sure there is more than that for you. Also. You haven't seen the muscles on my legs yet. And I have a gun ready to bet dirty with you." He takes his hand and motions the wall to fall back into place. Luckily the room is sound proof and no one can hear from the outside unless the wall wasn't placed back in place correctly.

"A gun? You mean the organ between your legs."

"You got that."

Ragan takes Shala's visor off. When he saw her face, his eyes grew stunned. "What, never seen a Quarian unmasked," she asked him.

"I have, only one. Tali but you are more beautiful than her," he caused Shala to blush. He then took the belts that were strapped at the waist and made them lose. She then looked at him and found that she was now in his embrace because he was hugging her to get the belts unstrapped. After a few minutes of unstrapping belts on Shala's suit, she then pushed him to the bed and pounced on him followed by kissing him.

* * *

><p><strong>Author Note: If I can get up to 2000 views this month, I'll do a special Thanksgiving Chapter for this story.<strong>


	21. Chapter 16: She Wants to Do What

Chapter 16: She Wants to Do What

John is on deck 3 cooking for himself, Tali, Garrus, Shala, Kasumi, and Ragan. He took five eggs and cracked them off the counter. He hears the elevator open and look to see Ragan step off the elevator – thanks to the Alliance, they had to make a back door in the elevator that the mess hall is at, so it was faster than walking out and then turn any corner on your left or right. John looks at Ragan with wide eyes. "So, anything interesting that I might want to know."

"Just one. I am finally dating Shala'Raan. We talked about our life last night. It was interesting and intruding. I can't believe that she is the same age as me though, thirty-five. She is soooooooo interesting when it comes to weapons and engines. She also said that she wants to quit the Council…"

John stops doing what he is doing and looks at Ragan, "She said that last night? You must have been very close to her then."

"We were, because we… uh… oh God, this is going to sound like something is wrong with me… we slept with each other last night."

John jaw dropped, "You did what?"

"We did and it was exciting," Ragan sat down. "We did that last night because we bonded very quickly."

"I wasn't talking about your sex life, I was talking about her quitting the council. Why should she do that?"

"She told me that she only wants to be with me after I admitted that I loved her," he took a deep breath and sat up straight, "She also wanted to get off the politic BS before someone that is an SOB frame her for something. It still hasn't been a full shock that people still don't like the Quarians. But if they don't trust them, then something is wrong."

John checks the eggs and takes some cheese. "Okay, I hope your right about that. So she loves you and you do to. But why haven't you told her until last night?"

"Because I was a coward to admit it in front of people. I was known to be the ruthless person in the Alliance but that had to change because I didn't want to ruin anything else."

"Uh-uh. And?"

"And I didn't think I could love someone that knows a lot about me and others."

"Good to know, uncle. At least that you found someone to love."

"You got that damn right…"

Tali walks out of the elevator and sees Ragan talking to John, who is cooking. She just sits down across from Ragan and looks at him with wide eyes. "So, did you find something interesting, last night? Besides my auntie."

Ragan's eyes grew wide. "Listen, I love her and she loves me."

"I know you love her and she does the same to you because both of you are now bonding. And the way that she pinched your ass was another hint that she loved you but you reacting to it with a calm way is the best way to figure that you do love her."

"Okay, so I admit it to her last night, and today that I admit it," Ragan walks to the fridge and opens it up. Then walks back to his chair and sits down. "I just hope that we can stay with each other after she stops being with the Council."

"What, she wants to quit being Councillor? Since when?"

"Since she learned that someone is still have feelings against the Quarians and the person is Sparatus." Ragan grabs a beer and places it on the counter. "I don't anything else matters until Sparatus made a new law that – which I hope that it doesn't get passed – is to make the Quarians stay in the Terminus Systems. Idiot I call."

Shala'Raan comes out of the elevator and sits right next to Ragan. They both smile and look at each other. "So did you tell them the news?"

"I did, Shala. They took it very well."

"Sure we did," Tali looks at her auntie. "So, why did you just started going sleeping so quickly?"

Shala looks at Tali with wide eyes, she is worried about this. "How did you… know about that?"

"I had a feeling that you two can resist."

"I see that I can't hide anything from you."

"It seems that way," Ragan takes the beer can and opens it. "I don't know what else there is to say about our love. I guess we are like Romeo and Juliet."

John laughs at that saying, "I'm sure."

Tali and Shala look at Ragan with a tilted head indicating that they don't understand what Ragan said.

"Romeo and Juliet is a Human play that was written by an old King named King James II, and was directed by William Shakespeare. Written in the sixteenth century of Earth's time," Ragan knew a lot about ancient literature. "I had to write a summary about it during my time in N3 program. N3 program requires you to us the information that you read and see if we can use some of the strategies or anything that we had to read in real life."

Shala and Tali laughed at him, "I'm sure the N3 programming system was hard for you John, just as hard as your uncle's. But didn't you tell Tali that you had to do more than Ragan."

"Shala, I did have to be the one that had to go through the whole N7 program. N1 required me to do engineering, N2 required me to do have infiltrations," he quickly turns off the stove and takes the pan off the burner, "N3 required me to do what Ragan explained about literature, N4 was just a test for that part, N5 had to make you go into battle and see what kind of person you are…"

"What do you mean," Shala was curious.

"Sniper, brute, infiltrator, commando, anything that dealt with battlefield. Snipers can be from any class, brutes are for classes Infiltrators, Soldiers, and Sentinels. Infiltrators can be from any class except Sentinels and soldiers. Commandos are the only one that all six classes have to use their brain. I was placed as a combat engineer, even though that I had infiltrator training… but then again, infiltrators had to use cloak so that they can disable or enable anything."

"You got that true. They classified me as a hunter. So they decided to have me put in the N7 Shadow infiltration unit after I graduated N6. Once you reach N6, and graduate, you automatically become an N7 operative and then asked to join if you want to go higher like N8 or more, if your record shows that you have passed everything with at least a 90 or above and your GPA is higher than 5.00 – college based – without any records of dropping a class. I was given that choice but I choice not to because I didn't want to do the N7 part of the tests after that. You have to do everything you learned and a lot that you didn't learn."

"Why make you do something that you don't know?"

"So they can see if they if you are qualified to join the highest rank N9. N9 is the hardest thing and you have to be like a super genius to get to it. I would like to be an N9 but I chose to stay with N7. I didn't want to be like the type of person that made. Plus no one has ever accepted the N8 invitation."

"I'm just glad that my lover is smart and is more powerful than John is…" Shala looked at John to see if he reacted but he just shook his head.

"What does that mean Shala?"

"It means that my man can beat you in hand-to-hand combat without a problem."

"Of course he can. N7 Shadows trained him to do fighting moves from an old Video game series, Mortal Kombat. He is quick on his feet. He does biotic hand-to-hand attacks that are ten times more powerful than my biotics. And on top of that, he was trained by a ninja clan while in the N7 program."

Ragan shakes his head and looks down. "You just had to say that didn't you. Eres un hijo de puta."

John looked at him and flipped him off. "Don't call me a bitch in Spanish."

"I will whenever I want and I will because it's fun."

Tali and Shala are laughing so hard that they start to choke. "Damn it Ragan, you made us laugh so hard. I didn't think my bondmate would have made me laugh this hard. Let alone, my auntie."

"Okay, okay. Right now, I'm trying to have some breakfast," John grabs a plate and places some eggs on the plate. "So, Shala, why do you want to leave the Council?"

"You want the truth or the lie?"

"Both... if you don't mind."

"Okay the lie is because we found out that there is a hit on me. The truth is because someone wants me to step down because he wants to have some alone time with me and he wants to be by my side for all my life. That and I'm sick of dealing with the Political bull shit. It's like someone wants to kill everyone in the room. I have been with the Admiralty Board for ten years, been with the Conclave for five years, then the Council for a year and I think it's time that I step down. I don't need to be with the politics. Plus, what Udina said before he died he said, and I quote, 'There is more political bullshit that can cause a political shitstorm before anything happens.'"

John gave a smile, "I'm glad that you are stepping down because I think politics are the weeds of the galaxy and they need to focus on someone but Udina was right about the shitstorm. Politics don't even care what happen to anyone anymore. I'm glad your the first one that realize this. The only two councillors that care about the people is Anderson and Sparatus. But even then, they are the only two people that can't do anything because since the Reaper Invasion, the other councillors are focusing more on something smaller."

"They are focusing on themselves because they don't want to do anything but be like that president Ragan hates so much," Tali stated. She knew that was the correct answer and it was the only thing that made John nod his head in agreement.


	22. Chapter 17: So The Cure is Here

Chapter 17: Back to Rannoch

An alarm goes off in the Captain's Cabin and it wakes up John and Tali. They then get up and start getting dressed. Tali then looks at the children's cribs and gave a sigh. She had forgotten that Shala wanted to spend some time with the children last night so they asked if it was alright with the new couple if they can stay in Ragan's room until they get back to Rannoch.

John grabs his Admiral uniform belt and straps it to the fourth hole from the end of the belt. He lost weight since the whole Reaper Invasion and the gym being down underground at their home on Rannoch but during the time that he was on Earth because the Batarian colony was destroyed, he gained some weight. "EDI, how long until we get to Rannoch?"

EDI's voice is heard over the intercom, "ETA thirty minutes. Is there anything else you would like to know?"

"Nothing more, thank you."

"Of course Shepard. Logging you out."

Tali walks behind him and wraps her arms around his waist. "I just hope our house is still there."

John gave himself a little chuckle, "I'm sure that Raphael didn't have anything wrong. Same with Hermes and Leonardo. They are helping him with the security."

"I hope so. Now I want to talk about Ragan and Shala being together."

John quickly looked at her with a frown, "What you don't approve of them being together. They are what they are. Happy with each other."

"I'm not in disapproval of it. I want to know what your input in it is."

"My input is that they are happy and if they are happy, then they should be together like us."

Tali blushed when she heard John say those words. "Okay, I trust you."

"Thank you seyna. You're my wife and I like you to know that they have been together for several days. Now that I think of it, they would like to have get to know more."

"So what are you suggesting?"

"I'm suggesting that we let them have some alone time for a while."

"That will see fair. After all Shala did give us time alone when we were on Rannoch. So, it does seem far to give them some space," Tali then jumps up and wraps her legs around his waist. "I'm just glad that Auntie Raan found someone who loves her for who she is."

"Just like me. I didn't care if you were beautiful under that mask. I married you because you are the only person that understood me for what I went through. You were there all the time, by my side, when it was getting tough. You stayed by my side when I had to return to Earth and answer for using Cerberus. You were there when we made the run towards Harbinger. That is why I love you. You stayed by me no matter what. Good, bad, or neutral."

"I know and I would do it again for you. I would because I love you with my heart. If I didn't love you, I wouldn't have given you three beautiful children from my womb."

"Tali, like I said. I don't care if we have children. The only thing that I want is you. And thanks to Mordin, we have children and that makes me love you more because now, I feel like we have accomplished the impossible again. This is like the seventh time we did that."

"Seventh time? What were the other six?"

"Saren, curing the genophage, having peace between Geth and Quarians, Collector base being destroyed, having Cerberus destroyed, Reapers getting killed."

"I know more than seven times we have made the impossible possible," she looks at him and then pinches his butt. "We have made it possible for us to have most of the people alive after all the joined forces of the galaxy."

"True. And surviving the blast of the Crucible is another thing that seemed impossible."

"I still consider that one a luckily thing. EDI told me that we should have died by something but nothing happened," then she realized John dropped his head. "What's wrong?"

"Tali, I just have something to tell you. Remember when Ragan said that he is dying due to radiation poisoning. Well, I am too. But don't worry, Mordin's friends from STG is trying to find out a cure because most of their men got the same thing when the Crucible was fired and it altered the DNA."

"John, why didn't you tell me…," Tali starts sobbing in his arms. "Why, why, why, why?"

"Because I knew you would react like this and I didn't want to tell you when I found out. I wanted to wait until they found the cure. Which I'm pretty sure is about ready. Doctor Smith – my doctor after the Reaper Invasion – told me I had between fifty and sixty years. It's slow acting and it's doing very little damage. When I learned that we could have children, I asked him via Omni-tool when I was in the bathroom if it will spread to the children and he said it won't due to it's not in my cells but in my organs," he then brushes Tali's tears off her cheeks. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you when I found out. I wasn't going to see you be like this."

"I forgive you. Right now, I just want to go home," she was interrupted when John's Omni-tool started beeping.

"Sorry, got to see what is going on," he walks out of the room and opens the comm link. He sees a Salarian trying to adjust the Omni-tool, "Can I help you?"

"Yes, I believe he have some good news for you Admiral. We have found a cure. Basically all we have to do is put a counter-active radiation in your body. We made it and it will be destroyed after the first radiation is terminated. So basically it will be like nothing happened when the Crucible blasted the Red EMP beam," the Salarian was smiling. "We need to meet you at Rannoch in forty-five minutes."

"That will be it, I'm guessing?"

"Correct. We don't have to get you to a lab because we have a special way of doing this now. The radiation melts everything but compact material like metal, glass, and wood. We will be giving you the radiation by a needle." John's eyes went wide. He had a fear of needled just like Tali, Ragan and Shala. He guess that is one way why they were together with each other. "Okay, then I'm guessing that you don't want it by needle but it's the only thing that can save you."

"Alirhgt, fine," John gave in and nodded his head. "I'll send you the nav-point to a location we can be at without the distractions."

"Of course. I hope nothing bad happens when we do this because we tested on Salarians, Asari, Quarians, Krogan, and some clones that Alliance made. But you're the first real Human that this will be used. And I'm pretty sure nothing will be having negative effects. Now, need to work. Call when needing me. Have to have this ready for arrival," the comm link is closed from the Salarian's side.

John walks in the room and sees Tali sitting on the bed's edge facing the door. He puts a smile on his face and walks towards her, "I got some good news."

She looks at John, "What kind of good news? Something else you are hiding from me?"

"I just got a message from a Salarian scientist and he said he found a cure for my radiation poisoning," he sits down beside her and looks at her hands are just nervously moving. "He wants to give me the cure on Rannoch."

She looks at him and then hugs his waist, "Really… that's good to hear."

"I know Tali. But he didn't mention anything about Ragan's cure. I'm guessing that he will be dead." He thought to himself. He didn't want to make anyone worry – especially his family. He wanted to help them but Ragan was beyond any help due to the Titan aggressiveness towards the muscles and organs. The doctors told John that Ragan had about twenty-five years left. And that was a year ago when Ragan and John learned about it. Ragan was a fighter but when he heard he had poison, he abandoned his military life and gave up. Until he meet someone that he loved.


	23. Chapter 18: Big Surprise

Chapter 18: Big Surprise

As the casket is taken to the grave, John, Shala, Steven, and Tali are just crying by what happened. Ragan had passed away five months while being on Rannoch. What happened was his poison finally got to his brain and destroyed it; making him die instantly. He had this poison in his body for a five years but something wasn't right. Ragan had never experience pain from what happened and so he just lived like it was nothing. When he died, Shala requested an open casket for the viewing – John and the others didn't disagree with her but they knew that this is the final time they will see him.

Steven looks at his younger brother's body and shakes his head. He is in complete disbelief this happened so quickly. He felt a hand touch his shoulder and looks to see his son is behind him. "I always thought it would be me before him. But I never knew this…," Steven then looks back at Ragan's body and closes his eyes. "I don't know what else to say. Mother and father wouldn't allow me to cry. I just hope that they don't do anything dramastic when they come here to see their little," he starts to tear up trying to imagine what might happen, "baby boy like this."

"Dad, I'm sorry but I don't know what else to do for you. I don't know what you are going through because I never had a brother or sister at all," John walks away and places some flowers in a vase. "I just hope that I never lose one of my children before I die."

"See, John, I know what it's like. I lost my some that you didn't know was your sister, Jane Shepard. You and she were twins but she died when a Harvester was flying around on Krogan Space. Her ship was destroyed by the Harvester when it came out of the lower atmosphere of Keimal – a destroyed planet due to nuclear wastes – when she just got in the military," he opens his eyes. "But this is different. I lost my baby brother. He just wasn't my baby brother, but he was my best friend."

"I didn't know," he looks around to see Shala grabbing her stomach while speaking with Tali. "Is there anything I do for you dad?"

"Not right now, but thank you."

Shala walks up to Steven and looks at Ragan's body. She shakes her head and starts weeping very softly. "I never told him that I was so proud of him for everything that he did for me. I just wanted to tell him that I was pregnant with his child."

Steven looks at her and then looks back at Ragan's body. "I'm sure he knows now. He was a good person that was backsliding from God. All the time that he spoke of God, he was trying to tell me something and I didn't listen. But now he is in Heaven and looking down at us. He is watching us because he loves us. And I'm sure that God told him that you were pregnant."

"Now I don't know what to do. It's like something was wrong from the very beginning and I don't know what to do now." She closes the casket and looks at John, "I'm worried what might happen between him and Tali. They both loved Ragan as a dear brother. And the way they were with him showed that Ragan was a good person."

"I don't know what might happen. But I know that I'm not going to be the same," the old Admiral walks to a chair and sits down. "I'm sure whatever happens, it's in God's hands right now."

"I hope so. He got me to believe in God and I am happy that I have someone – or used to – look forward to going to Heaven"

John starts typing on his omni-tool and gets an Eric Clapton song called Tears in Heaven. As the music is playing, John sits down next to Tali who is sobbing very heavily. He places his arm around her and pulls her close. He starts singing along with the song, "Would you know my name? If I saw you in Heaven. Would you feel the same? If I saw you in Heaven? I must be strong and carry on. 'Cause I know I don't belong here in Heaven.

"Would you hole my hand? If I saw you in Heaven? Would you help me stand? If I saw you in Heaven? I'll find my way through night and day. 'Cause I know I don't belong here in Heaven." He takes in the guitar solo and looks at Tali before continuing singing, "Time can bring you down, time can bend your knees. Time can break your heart and have you begging please. Begging Please." He then stops for a little while but Tali grabs his hand.

"John, what was this song for," she asked.

"It for someone that passed away. Eric Clapton lost his son when his son was very little," he answered her but before she could speak, he was singing again, "Beyond that door. There's peace I'm sure. And I know there'll be no more tears in Heaven." John stops for a little while.

"I see what you mean John, losing someone that close is awful," Tali wanted to make John feel comfortable around her but at a funeral, it's hard to do that.

"Thanks Tali. But Ragan was more like a father figure to me than anything else."

"I can tell."

John then hears the music and Eric Clapton's voice over the radio which was John's queue to sing again, "Would you know my name? If I saw you in Heaven? Would you feel the same? If I saw you in Heaven? I must be strong and carry on. 'Cause I know I don't belong here in Heaven." The music stops and every one looks at the front of the room. Steven then motions John to come up and stand behind the podium.

"I think it's time that we hear some words before we take it to the funeral," Steven said while trying not to cry. He then sees his mother and father coming in from the back and they sit down on the back row. Steven then walks around the sits on the outer part of the room and towards his parents.

John then takes a deep breath and looks at everyone, "Family and friends, I'm am so sadden by this of what has happened. The youngest of six passes away before the other five pass away. But this is a hard time for use. So before we go to the funeral, I want to say a few words.

"First off, Ragan wasn't only my uncle but he was also like a father to me. He helped me with everything that I did when I found out that he was with…" a loud knock is heard from the casket. Everyone looks at the casket. "My family…" another loud knock is heard. John turns around and looks at the casket to make sure no one was behind it. "Okay, is it me or is this some kind of sick joke…" the casket flies open and everyone looks at the front of the room. Everyone is in complete fear when the whole top of the casket hit the ceiling without any warning. Thanks to the dust, it was hard to find out what happened.

Shala runs up to John and grabs his arm. John didn't think about what was going on so he just let it happened. Shala then forces him away from the podium when it sounds like someone is coming out of the casket. Shala thought to herself that she was going to die and John thought we have an intruder.

"OH MY GOD! RUN TO THE DOORS," one of the men yelled. Everyone listened to him and ran as quickly as they could until they heard a familiar voice from the casket.

"Damn Titan. What the fuck is going on with my systems," Ragan raises up and everyone looks like they lost their color tone. "I know, but for some odd reason I'm back and I'm ready to have a new life."

Everyone then backed up away from him and tried to stay calm. This was the first time this has happened and they thought something is wrong until they saw Ragan grabs a photo and tears it up. The photo was taken when he was with his first wife and he tore through it like it was just made out of air.

"I hate photos of me," Ragan said and walked towards the casket. "God gave me a second chance and now I can do this…" he takes his hands and removes the Titan container off his back. Then then takes the container by one of the tubes and throws it in the trash. "No more Titan in my system."

John look at Ragan and thinks it is an illusion. "I'm sure that you…"

"Know much more than what you think Jonathan Ryu William Shepard."

John looked at him and shook his head. "It is you."


	24. Chapter 19: Will You

Chapter 19: Will You…

As the cold winds come by the ocean side. John is with his son, Zaal, are building a sand castle. Tali is with Shala at the fruit bar. Raela and Rena are with him. His two nieces are playing in the sand. Ragan just places a smile. He was glad that he was brought back alive four months ago and he is glad to spend some time with his family. He looks at Zaal and gives a smile. He then lays down on the sand.

Zaal points at Ragan and tucks at John's shirt to indicate him to see him. John then look at Zaal and gives him a big hug. "Okay son, I will." John walks towards Ragan, who has his eyes closed by is still listening to Raela and Rena. He then opens his eyes and looks up to see John standing behind him. "I think it's time, uncle."

"You might be right but I'm not sure if she will accept it," Ragan then gets up and dusts himself off. He then looks towards Raela who is about to head to the ocean, "Raela, don't go that way. Come back here," he calmly yelled towards her. Raela turns around and then walks back to Ragan. Rena then walks towards John and hugs his leg.

"Uncle, you love her and she loves you. When I purposed to Tali, she accepted. Shala with accept, because she is pregnant with your child. She loves you."

"Okay, I see what you mean nephew," He then grabs a small box from his back pocket. "I will ask her now." He places the box back in his back pocket and walks up to Shala'Raan. She looks at him and gives him a smile. "Shala I have something to say. You are my love and I would do anything for you. I want you to be happy with everything that I do for you.

"I want you to know that I would have your life going happiness and then see you have a good life. I want you to understand that if I'm not with you, I will still love you. I want you to know that. I want you to be happy with me because I want you to be with me forever," Ragan gets down on one knee and brings a small box out of his back pocket. "Shala, I want you to be with me. I want to have an arrow in the knee for you. What I'm trying to ask Shala is…," he opens the box to reveal a ring with three gems; two amethysts on the side and a small diamond in the middle that is on a gold ring. "Shala'Raan vas Rannoch, will you marry?"

Shala looks at him and starts crying for joy. She is speechless. Tali grabs her shoulder and then nods to her. "Ragan, I will," she gets up and hugs him. "I will spend the rest of my life with you, my seyna."

Ragan then kiss her. "Shala, I love you so much that I would do anything for you. Your brains, personality, and the way you think are reasons why I want to marry you."

"Ragan I will do it because I love you so much that you are what I love. You do anything for me. Just like John with Tali."

"Auntie Raan, I'm sure that you both remind each other of me and John."

"Tali, you know that we remind each other that we are just like you."

Tali looks at Shala and Ragan. "I'm just glad that you two have each other like I have John."

Ragan looks at Tali and then smiles while shaking his head. "I care about your aunt, Tali. I always did and I always will because of one reason: I don't want to have her die like my wife. I never forgave myself when I could have stayed with them. But I didn't save them. I don't want Shala to be dead before it's her time. I want to live with her until one of dies of old age." Shala places her head on his shoulder and starts purring like a cat.

"Auntie Raan, I think you are in your love mood… again. Please don't do what you did last time. The children heard you and they are one year old," Tali saw Ragan and Shala blush in embarrassment. "You thought that your room," she points at Ragan, "was sound proof. Only mine and John's room is sound proof."

"Well, lesson learned the hard way. I'm glad that Shala has a child for me…"

"Actually, it's more than one. They're twins," Shala stated it. "I didn't want to tell you until I got some more information about their genders."

"Shala, I don't care if they both boys, either girls, or different genders. All I care about for them is that they are healthy and live with us," he saw Shala had a big smile that ran for a mile.

"That I what I wanted to hear from you, seyna. Keelah, I just hope we do well with them."

"And we will. I'm not making the same mistake that happened. And I'm not making the same mistake my brother did."

John walks up to the fruit bar with his three children. He looks at Ragan then smiles. "I hope you did ask her."

Ragan looks at him and gives a sarcastic remark, "No, I didn't because I was more concerned about drinking ryncol."

Shala and Tali laughed at that remark, they then saw Ragan and John pick up the children. John picked up Zaal and Rena. Ragan had Raela. They then carried them to the car while Shala and Tali just stayed at the bar.

"So, Tali. Are you going to tell him?"

"Auntie, I think I will tonight. After all, he has been honest with me and I need to tell him."

"That's my little niece. I hope you know how he will react to it."

"You should have seen his face when the doctor told him that I was having triplets. He was shocked at that."

"I wish I was there with both of you when that happened. I would have loved to recorded it with my omni-tool and give it to extranet."

Tali then looks up to the sky and sees it is getting late. "Auntie, I think we might need to head towards the car. I'm sure it's getting late for both of them because they are used to twenty-four hour days instead of thirty hour days."

"I agree. But let me finish this smoothie. I want the children to have the proper nutrients they need."

"Okay."

Shala grabs the glass in front of her and finishes drinking her smoothie. "Okay. Now we can go."

Tali then walks with Shala to the car and look at John and Ragan, who both of them place a finger over their mouths to indicate that the children are sleeping. Ragan looks in the car to see the children and then smiles towards them. He thought to himself that he was going to be a horrible father again but something wasn't going to let that happen. He looks at Shala, who placed her hand on his shoulder and gave a warm smile to him.

Tali comes up and hugs John, who then hugs her tightly. "John, I have some news."

John let go of her and looked towards her. "What kind of news?"

"I'm pregnant again… and this time it's just one."

John grabs her by the waist and lifts her up making her scream for joy. "Tali, I never thought this would happen again. I didn't think we should have another child. I mean, we have three that are one year old."

"John, it's not my fault that your sperm got my egg fertile. I am a fertile woman after all. Just like my aunt," she saw Shala raise her hands to indicate 'leave me out of this' type look.

"Okay, Tali. My sperm may have gotten the egg fertile but you have to remember that we are married and live with each other."

"True," her accent made it sound like something was wrong.

"You okay," John asked.

"No, I'm just thinking."

"About?"

"Nothing that should concern you…"

Shala and Ragan look at her and shake their heads when they see John pinch his bridge on his nose. "Tali, anything that happens between me and you, the house, the children, my small company, the children, and the family. If it involves them, I want to know."

"It's nothing John, I swear."

John shakes his head in disbelief and gets in the the car. "Okay, whatever." He then starts the engine and everyone else gets in.-


	25. Chapter 20: Stupid Joke

Chapter 20: Stupid Joke

Laying in the bed, Ragan and Shala have had their children a year ago. It has been two years since John and Tali had their four children. But it was short lived when Ragan's omni-tool starts beeping. He quickly grabs the end of the metal bracelet that houses the hardware of the Omni-tool and looks like he is about to take it off and throw it at the wall. But instead he opens the comm link and sees an Alliance General.

_"Is this former Alliance General Ragan Ryu Hackett, N7 Shadow of the third Blade Division called Argo's Rage" _Ragan could tell the general is nervous about something and something wasn't right.

"Yes, this is I," he looks at the holo of the General.

_"General William Tucker. I have some bad news. Your parents – Sakura Hayabusa-Hackett and Victor Fries Hackett – were involved in a bombing on Terra Nova,"_ William looked at Ragan and saw some wear and tear, _"And your brother, Steven Hector Mokin Hackett, is dead. He was sent to investigate the bombing and found nothing. Around o' two-hundred hours, we lost contact. We sent a team to find the bodies or the target. They found both. The bodies were burnt on the surface but the identification chip implanted in their arm wasn't destroyed. We also found footage of who did this. The target was a Turian-Asari-Salarian-Human-Krogan-Geth-Quarian embassy building."_

Ragan looked at the holo, "I think I know. Only two groups are capable of doing something like this. Cerberus – due to the history of being a black ops then went rogue – or Terra Nieval – an anti-human racist group that wants no humans allowed on any planet but on Earth – are the only ones that I can think of. But even so, Cerberus is terminated. Commander Shepard destroyed them during the Reaper Invasion."

_"It's not any of them, well it is only half on Cerberus. We went to find out some more information. It's a group called Preemptive Security Investigation of Communist Options and Masquerading – or know as…"_

Ragan interrupted him, "PSICOM?"

"_Yes and we also found out that it's a rogue black ops – just like Cerberus was – but was hired by Cerberus to deal with any Alliance officials."_

Ragan's face turned red and tightened his fist. "I can't help you at all. I'm retired and I have a family to take care of. Get Kaiden Alenko into this. He might beable to…"

_"I'm sorry but there is some bad news. General Alenko is dead. He was with your brother. Hell only very little of the Alliance is left. So far, only a thousand of us are left. Cerberus wants us killed. They are doing this because if the Alliance falls, then they go after C-Sec and E-Crimes. They are planning to take control of the Citadel then come to Rannoch to kill former Commander John Ryu William Shepard," _he rubs his chin and then continues. _"They are hell bent to kill anyone that is in their way for the following: Political influence, death of John Ryu Shepard and the destruction of the Alliance."_

"Cerberus says they are for humanity but just look at the proof. They made me have a Titan container on my back for 5 years, they wanted to have the Collector base so they can create a Reaper, the Illusive Man tried to have humanity's space Jesus – Commander Shepard – dead, they tried to have the Reapers controlled, they sat back during the Reaper Invasion and counter everything John did, and they failed to destroy the rouge AI and VI from both Luna and Project Overlord from killing other Humans that were important to Humanity. Do I need to go on?"

_"No, please don't. I believe you and I read the reports. I am the Report Executive Officer after all."_

"Thank you for your time," Shala places her hand on Ragan's back and gently strokes it while he is talking. He then cut the comm link off and gets out of bed.

"You're going to tell him, aren't you," she quickly gets up and looks at him with worried eyes.

"I have to. And Cerberus will pay dearly for this," he walks up to one of the dressers and press a hidden button. After a few seconds, a back panel of weapons comes up. "I'll kill them myself." He grabs his M-96 Mattock X, M-300 Claymore X, and M-920 Cain. "They will regret this. And I'll make damn certain…"

"HEY! DON'T BE CUSSING, WE CAN HEAR YOU IN THERE," John's voice traveled through the door.

Shala laughed when she saw Ragan jump a little from John's voice. "Okay, fine. Meet me outside. I just a call from General Tucker. It involved your father." Ragan walks out of the room and heads outside. "Still can't believe that the Geth are still taking so long to build my house and I'm still living with my nephew," he said to himself out loud.

John comes out and looks at Ragan with wide eyes, "So what happened?"

"A bombing happened on Terra Nova. Your father was sent to go investigate it but was killed by PSICOM. Your grandparents are dead also. The target was a seven species embassy building. Mainly Turians, Asari, Geth, Quarians, Krogan, and Salarians were killed. A rouge black ops, PSICOM, destroyed the building. They all must have used stage five explosives. Military and illegal type bombs, such as Miniature Cain Cannon."

John punches the wall and walks away from the dent that he caused. "Why would they do that?"

"To kill you, destroy the Alliance – former or not – and have the Citadel under their control instead of having other races control it. PSICOM got hired by Cerberus. Also, Kaiden Alenko died with Hackett," he quickly gets in blocking stance so that he can block John's attack. But luckily, John didn't attack.

"How is our going to explain this to our children?"

"How should I know," all John can see is Ragan's omni-tool flashing. "Great. I'm going to take this," he opens the comm link.

_"Happy April Fool's day,"_ Steven Hackett's voice is heard.

"What the fuck is wrong with you? I take everything about the family serious. I was contacted by General Tucker about your death. What is wrong with you?"

Hackett is laughing and then looks at his little brother. _"You were dead for a little while and then you came back alive – That was twice that happened to you. And so I thought I can have some revenge at that because people still think it's a prank from you and John so I decided to side with them."_

"NOT FUNNY! I NEARLY HAD A HEART ATTACK! You do this next time, I will came after you and claw your eyes out."

_"Please don't do that."_

"Then don't do that joke again," he veins start to turn green – due to the Titan being part of his blood. He didn't need to use the Titan containment because the Titan's radiation poisoning stopped. He talked to Shala about this and said it was thanks to God for healing him. He starts calming down after a few seconds and his veins become back to normal.

_"Okay, fine. I won't do it. Sheesh, what did I do… Oh, wait… I know, trying to having you killed by a heart attack,_" Hackett sarcastically said.

"Father, enough of this. You shouldn't have done this. We are on Rannoch so it's a day ahead from your position. You are on Earth, so you have the right time than us. And I don't want to go back to Ragan's funeral and have him get reborn like last time," Steven never heard this before. His son was scolding him for a joke.

Tali, Zaal, Raela, Rena, and Shala come out and see John, Ragan, and Steven's holo having an arguement.

"Uncle Ragan," the triplets said in unity.

"We will finish this later. A good day to you," Ragan closes the come link. "Zaal, Reala, Rena. How are you favorite nieces and nephew?"

"Fine," Reala said. She was very quiet. Hardly said a work near anyone that wasn't part of the family or one of John's friends.

Tali looks at Ragan and sees him still mad. "Kids, why don't you go back inside so that we grown-ups can speak with each other." The children then nodded before they entered the house.

"So, what was going on, honey," Shala was confused.

"It seems that that my older brother was doing a joke on me," Ragan shakes his head and walks towards the door. "A very bad joke."

John chuckled and then blinked one time, "No kidding. Here I was about to mourn for him until Ragan's omni-tool started flashing. That's when we both learned about the joke."

Shala then looks at Ragan and sees him enter the house. "I'm going to make sure that he doesn't contact Steven and cuss him out in any language," she then enters the room and follows Ragan towards their room.


	26. Chapter 21: He Never Forgot

Chapter 21: He Never Forgot

Small breathing is heard from the hallway from John and Tali's room. Luckily that didn't wake them up. But something was about to. The door opens up and little footsteps are heard. "Daddy," the little voice said, "Daddy." John turns towards the sound and with his eyes still closed he gently tries to find the source with his hand. Touching nothing for five seconds, he goes back to sleep. "Daddy," the voice got louder and louder. Repeating the whole process until finally, "Daddy," the voice was next to John's ear.

John gets up and sees his oldest girl, Raela smiling at him. He rolls his eyes and picks her up. "What are you doing here?"

"I have to ask you a question. Do you remember what day it is?" Raela asked John and sees him wide eyed. "You forgot didn't you?"

"No, no, no. I didn't forget. It's just that I spent so much time with your mother, I haven't had time to do that much until last night," John gets out of the bed and walks towards the door. "Follow me. I need you, your other three and Ragan's children to help me with this." John walks out of the room and down the hallway. Raela quickly walks behind him, it was hard for her to keep up with John because his feet were size fifteen and a half and he was six foot and seven inches.

Raela then looks at him and sees him enter the kitchen. Without hesitation, she followed him in and saw him grab some bowls with cereal. "Okay, so what do you need my help with?"

"That's easy little Ra," he used Raela's nickname because he didn't feel comfortable calling her Rael. "I need you to keep your mommy here until I give you the message to let her out to the beach." Raela then nodded at him. "Tell her that I went to a jog or something that makes it seem like I care about my health."

"Okay daddy. What do you want Zaal and Rena to do?"

"I want them to keep your mother here. I also want Kalee," his six year old daughter, "to be with them. They should try to stall her by playing with your mother. I will also have Salva and Lia," Salva and Lia were both Ragan and Shala's twin girls, "to stall your uncle and auntie."

"Okay," then she pours her cereal into one of the bowls while John grabs the milk from the fridge. He then pours the milk on Raela's cereal and gently kisses her head. To her that meant that her father loved her more than the others because the others were trouble makers. "So what's the big plan?"

John looks at her and takes the milk back in the fridge. "If I told you, I have to kill you," he said in a jokingly manner. Raela knew what that meant.

"Okay, so you don't want to tell me, I guess I'll find out myself," she grabs a spoon and starts eating her cereal. John then grabs a protein shake and places on the table. "Yuck, I hate the smell of them."

John laughed at her and opens it, "It might smell bad, but it keeps me going all day. I haven't had much protein in my diet after I got to this planet."

"Daddy, care to tell me how you meet mommy."

"Okay, little nephew, I think she needs to know," John quickly turns around and sees Ragan at the door.

"Don't do that, uncle. You might be my family but don't do that," John grabs his chest to make sure that he didn't have a heart attack.

"I'm just saying that it's time for her to know."

"Okay fine," John turns his head back to Raela, "Raela, what I'm about to tell you is something that was done before me and your mother were in love." Raela's eyes got wide. "I was at the Citadel years ago trying to prove to the Council that the Geth attacked Eden Prime was a ground worked," he saw her lift an hand for a question but before she asked, "A ground worked means it was planned by someone who know what they were doing. Anyway, I had to prove it and Saren was there. After I gave them the proof the Council said that it wasn't what they thought and dismissed the whole thing. Luckly your uncle Garrus was looking into Saren. We both worked together and found a Krogan bounty hunter named Urdnot Wrex. Wrex then told me that he has a lead with the Shadow Broker and so we followed it. Then we came with Fist – a criminal – who knew something about Eden Prime being attacked. He told me that one of Saren's assassin's attacked your mother and that she was looking for the Shadow Broker.

"We had to fight our way and got the information of where your mother was at. She was at an alley way and we got there before some of Saren's men were going to kill her. She threw a trip mine and caused the men to fall down that were in front of her. I attacked the ones that were in the back. After they were dealt with, I got to her and asked if she was alright. And that's how I met her."

Raela then looks at him and shakes her head. "Then how did you and mommy get married?"

"On the first Normandy, we didn't express our love at all because we were cowards at the time. When the Collectors attacked, I was with your mother when my sister was going after Joker. We then told each other that we loved each other until I got a KIA – Killed in action – report about my sister died from the Collectors.

"I was with her on Freedom's Progress with your mother and we both saw my sister. She then slaps me and told me 'You loved her and you didn't say anything to her.' I couldn't believe my eyes. After we got done with Freedom's Progress, I then was shipped back to my home-world, Mindoir. When my sister got me for her mission, I saw your mother there. She then hugged and tapped her visor on my head. We then got to the Reaper Invasion and had to run towards the beam. I was with my sister and Tali, running towards it until a M35 Mako flipped and nearly got me and Tali. Your aunt, Amare, got me and your mother back on the Normandy by calling it. When the Normandy landed, I drug your mother to the med-bay. When I got word that your aunt didn't make it, I was left in charge of the Normandy SR-2.

"After a few weeks of mourning over my sister, your mother came to me and asked a question that stuck with me for a long time, 'Why must you cry over your sister?' I told her that I loved her as much as I loved your mother. Then I asked her to marry me that same day."

Ragan shakes his head and sits down in a chair. "Okay, so what you're saying is that you didn't want to admit your feelings towards Tali?"  
>"Correct. Now if you excuse me, I have to go for a 'jog'," he winked at Raela to tell her that was the cue.<p>

"Whatever mister muscled up man that can the next Arnold Schwarzenegger," Ragan love to joke about that to John.

John leaves the room just about five seconds before Tali comes in the kitchen. "Where is your father, Raela?"

"He went to go on a jog," she knew that was a lie and saw Ragan leave the room.

"Great, he must have forgotten today."

**Six Hours later**

Tali is sitting on the couch while playing with Zaal, Rena, and Ragan's two girls. Ragan and Shala were in the kitchen cooking supper lunch for the whole family. What Tali didn't know was that Ragan and Shala were also trying to spy on John.

"Your father has been gone for a while," Tali told her kids. "I think he is up to no good like the time that I had to install a new engine after the Collector base and he got in a fight with Jack," she laughed at that from hearing the words 'Fuck, Commander, you know nothing," followed by a boom in the memory.

Raela comes in the room and sits down next to her mother. "Mommy, I want to show you something."

Tali then looks at Raela and gave a sigh, "At least someone remembers what the day is," she said under her breath. "Okay, lead the way Raela."

Raela walk out of the house and headed towards the beach. Tali followed very closely and was still mad about John. "Here we are."

"Raela I don't see…," she looks at the rocks and see John waving her over. "Can't believe he forgot about this day. I swear, he is not going to...," she then heard music. She then looks at John move away from the rocks to reveal a table with wine and food for them. Tali runs up to John and hugs him. "Keelah, I though you forgot about this."

"Tali, I would never forget our anniversary because if I did, I wouldn't hear the end of it."

"You got that right you handsome bosh'tet."

John guides Tali to the table and pulls a chair for her. "Milady, I hope you have a wonderful time." Tali sits down and John gently pushes the chair towards the table. He then gets to the other side and sits down. "I have bought the most expensive items for us to eat. I hope you love this lunch."

"I will after I confess something. I'm sorry that I doubted you. I thought you forgot about this. I guess that November the seventh is never forgotten."

"Tali, it's easy for me to remember about that. November the seventh is just one way for me to remember the day I love you because I remember it from the N7 program."

Tali then grabs a breadstick and gives John a warm, fuzzy smile. "You know, tonight… Ragan and Shala are going to take the children to the park and then go see a movie. I was thinking… we can catch up since we didn't do it for a year."

"Tali, I know what you are thinking of and I support you on that," he then takes his fork and cuts the steak. "I want you to be happy and I'm willing to do that again with you. You said it before, 'It was worth it.'"

Tali then laughed and smiled. "Oh Keelah, I remember saying that after you agreed to take the Geth Dreadnaught down. We were in the Conference Room…"

**Conference Room – Normandy SR-2 Five Years ago**

_"And what about us Tali," John's voice was a little consirned. "Do you want to change us after what we have been through?"_

_"No, I just… I don't know any more," Tali turns around facing out into the space through the window._

_"Tali, I love you so much that I would do anything for you."_

_"I know you would. But I'm not sure if you still want me…"_

_"Tali, if I didn't want you, I would have told you, okay."_

_"Okay. Thanks for coming."_

_John crosses his arms and looks down at the floor. "If I have known it was this bad, I would have came faster to get you."_

_"You had your problems. Sorry about Earth," she turns around and looks at his blue eyes. "We have the strong and biggest fleet in the galaxy, or at least what is left after this stupid war."_

_"I thought you would support the war after our little talk about the Aleria."_

_"No, talking to Legion made me change my views," she then comes up to John and hugs him. "You know if you want to speak in private, you can… invite me to your cabin." She walks out of the conference room and heads towards the scanning room._

_"I will do that Miss vas Normandy."_

_Tali quickly turns around and looks at him, "And for the record between us. It was worth it."_

**NOW**

Tali and John look at each other eyes and kissed passionately. Then they broke from the kiss and head back towards their house on the cliff that was overlooking the ocean.


	27. Chapter 22: Six Year Make Up

Chapter 22: Six Year Make Up

The door opens towards Tali and John's room and they walk in. John then grabs her wrist and brings her closer. He then looks at her beautiful eyes of silver and little red in them while she stares at his blue eyes. Tali then jumps on John and wraps her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck. John then walks towards the king size bed – due to his size of being nearly seven feet tall – and places her on the bed by gently removing her arms and legs from his body.

She just laid there, not knowing what might happen until she felt the weird tingling around her body. She looks around her body and sees it is glowing blue. All she can do is smile towards him and then raise one eyebrow up. She then starts floating about the bed by five centimeters. She just looked at the ceiling and looked around the room in a calm fashion until she started falling very slowly towards the bed.

John then looks at her and smiles with a soft chuckle because Tali is looking at him with wide eyes. "Cerberus may have brought me back, but they had to install so biotics in me in cause of something went wrong during the Collector Base."

"I thought you didn't have biotics at all."

"I did but I didn't need to use them during the suicide mission. The Omega-4 Relay and invading the Collector base, no way I was going to use biotics and become like Jack. In fact, she was the one that came the biotics after we severed ties from Cerberus," Tali trusted John with everything that was happening and what was going to happen."

"Okay but I'm not sure that I trust you…," she lied to him. She wanted to take advantage just for once.

"That hurts Tali…," John places a hand on his chest and intimated that he was dying. "I think I'm going to die because you don't trust me." He stops and laughs at the joke.

Tali then looks at him and takes the shirt off. She then unzips his pants after unbuttoning them. John then sits down on the bed and places his feet in her lap. She unties the boots, that he wears all the time due to them having some cuts on them, and takes them off his feet. She then takes his socks off and looks at him.

John just looks at her and takes her shirt off and then unties the bow that is in her hair. He starts looking at the hair and gently plays with it. Stroking it with two fingers of his on his left hand, he looks at her and gives her a soft kiss on the cheek. He then unbuttons then unzips her pants so they can come off. John then takes his pants off as Tali is the doing the same. "You know, we haven't do this for five years. Having sex with each other because of my job here and training the soldiers over in Rayya. I think we should do this more often." He gently starts kissing her neck and travels down to her breasts.

"Keelah…," Tali moaned. "More, more, more." John laughs at that saying. "What so funny?"

"The way you said 'More, more, more.' That's what is funny," he stops laughing and then looks at her.

"Okay but aren't you still overdressed than me," she points at his underwear and his gloves that he wears over his hands.

"Tali, I think you are just being a hypocrite about that." He points at her undergarments, which made her blush.

"Okay, then," she unstraps her bra and takes her panties off her body. She flings the panties past John and then sits up next to him. "You nervous of having a naked Quarian next to you?"

"I-I-I don't know what to say," he was trying to make it seem like he never met her but that was a failure. "I'm just glad that I have four children with you. And I don't want that to change." She throw a condom at him. "Fuck!"

She giggled when she heard that. "Don't be like that unless you want a fifth child."

John then looks at her and shakes his head, "Aaah."

"You sound like a Vorcha. Don't do that. I didn't marry a Vorcha, I married a Human. If you are going to sound like a Vorcha, then you can go sleep on the couch tomorrow night. I don't want to ruin tonight."

"Okay. I might want to have a fifth child but I'm not so sure," John takes his gloves off and tosses them to the dresser that is in front of the room.

"I would love to have a fifth child but then it would be hard for us to take care of him or her."

"Tali, if you want a fifth child. Then we will give you a fifth child…"

"Wait… what? I didn't mean it like that, John."

"I thought you want to…" he stops when he hears Tali laughing. "So you do want a fifth child?"

"Of course I do. I want another boy. Otherwise, the Shepard legacy would end if Zaal died before he can mate with another Quarian."

John strokes her hair and looks at her. "I'm not sure I want another child. I think four is enough for me."

"John, don't be like…" she hears he laughing. "You mister bosh'tet'."

"And that makes you what… mistress bosh'tet."

"I guess you're right. But no one calls you that because you're my bosh'tet." She pushes him down on the bed and pounces on him followed by kissing him. "You… know… we… should… have… done… this… years… ago," she said in between kisses.

"I… know… what… you… mean… sweet… heart…," he was doing the same as Tali. He then looks at her and flips her over so he is on top of her. "Now, it's my turn. And I promise you that you will love this." He grabs his penis and places it in her vagina. "Now comes the fun part." He starts moving his penis up and down in a continuous motion.

"Yes… yes… yes… yes… yes… yes… yes… yes… yes…," Tali was so excited on that part.

"Say my name sweetheart. My full name."

"Johnathan Ryu William Shepard," she said. "Faster, deeper, harder." And it gets to the finally. "KEELAH!" She feels John's penis leave her vagina. She then looks at him, hoping he wasn't done.

John then takes his hands and gently rubs her face against the back of his hands. He then takes her by the waist and brings her to his head. "I love you Tali."

"I love you John. More than anything in the world."

"Then prove it."

"I will and I just might give you a good time for it also," she grabs his penis and places it in her mouth and starts sucking on it.

"Damn girl, you never get me time to do anything. You always impress me with something. Whether its sex, cooking, drinking, having fun, or doing some flirts with me. You always surprise me with something."

Two hours later

A knock is heard from the outside of the house. John gets up and looks at Tali, who is sleeping until John leaves the bed. He didn't know but she was now half-sleeping because of him leaving the bed woke her up a little. "John, what's going on?"

"Someone knocking. I'll be back," he was trying to do his best impression of Danny DeVito. He walks out of the room and down the stairs towards the living room. There the knock is heard again. He gets up there and puts a smile on his face. "We are sorry but it seems that you have the wrong house. Please make sure that the address is correct," he disguised his voice to sound like a British person.

"Please, open up. Our key broke," Ragan's voice is heard.

"Daddy, please open the door on your side. It's cold out here," Rena and Zaal said in unity.

"What do I get in return," John's voice went back to normal.

"How about this, what don't you get in return," Ragan was very mad. It was cold outside and he hates the cold. Especially after a year ago when his room was nearly destroyed by the house leveling incorrectly. Luckily it too them a few weeks to fix it.

"And that would be."

"You open the door and you won't get shot by me! Now open this," he stops for a second. "Kid's cover your ears. Good. Now where was I? Oh yeah. Now open this Goddamn door before I bust it open with my fist and shoot your fucking brains…," the door opens, "out of your head."

"Now that's not what you have to say to your only nephew."

"Shut up, isilima."

"Don't call me idiot in Zulu."

Ragan shakes his head and walks in with the children. Shala walks in after the children finally get in. "Good news, nephew. The house is nearly complete."

John looks at Ragan and offers his hand. "I told you the Geth would do something for you."

"True," he places his hand in John's hand and shakes it. "It should be done by the end of this week. And it's funny, it would be on your triplets' birthday when the house is done."

John smacks his own face. "Shit. I forgot about that."

"Yeah, thanks to Gerrel trying to blow the place up, it's one reason why it took over six years."


	28. Chapter 23: You Both Remembered

Chapter 23: You Both Remembered

Shala and Tali are looking at some photos of John and Tali's marriage. Both of them were remembering the day like it was yesterday. And to them it was the best day for both of them because Rael wasn't there – Tali was glad for that – and Shala saw her niece get married to someone who doesn't discriminate against people due to the history. Tali wanted to be happy on that day and she got what she wished for… well except the happiness until they got asked about taking each other.

John walks in with Zaal and Raela. Both of his children went to the fridge door and opened it to get some sodas. John then looks at Tali and Shala. "So what are you two doing?"

Shala and Tali jumped up and quickly turn to see John was in the room. They give a sigh of relief because they thought something went wrong. "Tali and I were just going through your wedding photos."

"Oh, God. I remember that day. Beautiful day. Can't believe it took so long because Wrex and Grunt were having a stupid bet with Jack and Javik. Those four know what is stupid but they wanted to know who was the strongest by punching the bell."

Tali looked at him with one eyebrow raised. "You mean, the bell that fell was because of Wrex, Grunt, Jack, and Javik? I can't believe them."

"I can't believe Wrex and Grunt backed them up when they were running."

Shala then gives a soft sigh, "At least the pastor had something to stop it before the wedding began."

John then looks at his two children and they closed the door. He then focused his attention back to the phots and looks at them, "The pastor told me that he used some kind of net. Metal cable or something that can withstand pressure of five hundred psi."

Shala and Tali looked at him and then looked at the photos. "Psi. More like Dsi. Death per square inch. It looked like it was about to fall the way the pastor explained it."

**Eight Years ago – Earth's First Church of Christ in Rio de Jairo (John's side)**

_"Okay, I'm sure that you are ready for this Commander," his Turian friend came up and looked at him. "Oh, Spirits. I don't know if I should laugh or cry for you because this is the second time I seen you in that." Garrus was trying to hold his laugh but it finally came out._

_"Amazing Grace, how sweet thus sound," John looks at the door to see the pastor coming in the room. "Oh, sorry about that. I get nervous when it comes to marring someone that is important."_

_"It's okay Pastor Alex," John said like he know the man._

_"Okay, but right now I have to warn you that four of your friends; two Krogans – one of them said that the other was a tank bred pyjak – have moved up to the bell tower with a Prothean and a human female named Jack, are about to start punching the bell. I don't want that to happen."_

_"Okay pastor, I'll go see if I can talk them down," Garrus leaves the room and closes the door behind them._

_The Pastor looks at John and gives a nod, "I hope that you have someone to fill in for your best man for the last moment because Wrex is up in the bell tower and I don't think it would be wise…" He quickly turns his head towards the door after hearing Garrus yell 'HELP'. "Oh, dear. I just hope your godmother will love this," he points at 'Hannah'. He know the truth because he was there when Steven and Kasumi wanted to get married but Steven was called to go back to active service. The pastor knew who 'Hannah' was._

_"I'm sure that it will be fine," John's godmother said. She then places one hand on his shoulder and looks out of the window. She then saw Joker outside trying to get in. "Is that one of your friends," she pointed and got John's attention to the window._

_"Oh shit. Why is this happening," the pastor looked at John and swatted him. "Ouch. What was that for?"_

_"You do not cuss in the house of God," the Alex told him in the instant. "Now, I'm going to leave you five," he pointed at John, Kasumi – who was playing as Hannah –, Jacob, Anderson, and Joker, "alone for a while. I need to see if something is wrong in the sanctuary." The pastor leaves and yells so loud that the walls looked like they were about to fall, "What in God's Holy name is going on? THE BELL! Oh God, please forgive them for defiling Your Holy temple! In Jesus' name, THIS PRAYER TO YOU GOD OF HEAVEN!" After a few seconds it was calm._

_"Devoted to God I see," Jacob said while opening the window for Joker to come in. "Why are you here?"_

_"I just wanted to ask the Commander a question about his time with Tali on deck one."_

_John quickly grabs Joker's arm and walks him to the door. "Joker, we don't need you to do anything like this again. I think you need to forget about it..."_

_Joker interrupted him, "So are you going to have children soon because the sound of it from the recording devices that Miranda, Garrus, Tali and Liara didn't find are at your cabin?" His omni-tool pops up and he starts getting the recorded feed. After a few minutes, they hear John's voice with Tali saying 'yes' repeatedly. Joker then looks at John, who's face turned blood red for anger. "Yeah, I should get…"_

_John grabs him by the arm and then looks at him. "I don't think so." He snaps his fingers and Anderson comes up with Jacob. "SO I think you need to apologize."_

_"I'm sorry that I uploaded this to the extranet," Joker was trying to get out of John's grip but it was hard for him to do so._

_"YOU WHAT?!" That really angered John. "My personal life recorded by a twitch like you. How dare you do something like that towards me; I should gut you like the fish you are." Joker's eyes get all big and starts trying to get out of the grip, "But I'm a better man. Time for you to leave." He walks towards the door and opens it. "I don't want you to come back." He pushes Joker out of the room and then slams the door followed by locking it. Joker tries to open it but fails. All they hear is him trying to cuss but they just laugh at him._

**NOW**

Shala and Tali looked at John after he explained what his side of the wedding was like. Tali then broke the silence, "Joker did that. That explains why he asked if I was going to have children but in a different wording."

Shala shakes her head and looks at Tali. She was going to find Joker and probably kill him for asking a question in front of her niece. "I can't believe that this happened. I just hope Joker got hurt when you pushed him out."

"He didn't," John said then covered his face. "God, I felt embarrassed because of that. My mother – Really Kasumi Kaiba - was going to kill me by the looks of it."

"I guess my side was almost like yours," Tali said by covering her face and place her hands on the table.

**Eight Years ago – Earth's First Church of Christ in Rio de Jairo (Tali's side)**

_"Miss Goto, I suggest that you leave her alone. The dress looks nice on her," Jack was trying not to say any cuss words because she didn't want the pastor to get mad at her._

_"Fine, it's not like something is going to happen and end the wedding," Kasumi said. She didn't want to admit it but she was John's cousin, not to be confused with his 'godmother'._

_"Please stop, my niece looks very nice in this white dress," Shala had her black visor on. She also looked at Kasumi Goto and gave a loud sigh. I still don't think you should have messed with the dress. It's beautiful as it is."_

_"Please Admiral Raan, you never been married. And I don't think you would because I never seen anyone that loves you," Kasumi looks at Shala and then ducks when Shala stood up._

_"I am sure that someone likes me. I met this nice man who has a Titan supply unit attached to his back today. And I and he have been together for… uh… five months now."_

_"Auntie, I think that's enough of it," Tali said while looking at them. "I just want this day to be nice."_

_"It will dear," Kasumi came up and looked at her, "I promise you that Shepard will say 'I do' before the pastor stops talking."_

_A knock is heard and they look at the door when it opens. "Hey guy… or shall I say gals. I have a question for you Tali," Joker walked up to her. "Do you think you and John are going to have kids because I have a record of you having sex with…"_

_"TALI'ZORAH VAS NORMANDY! WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS," Tali turned her head after Shala shouted. "You had sex with John before your both married! Tali, if your father heard of this you would never be allowed to come ten feet of John."_

_"Auntie, he used… oh, what was that thing called? A condom," Miranda and Jack looked at each other and walked away when they heard Tali said that._

_"Okay I think this is called a TMI moment," Jack said and looks at Miranda. "Don't you…" she sees Miranda pick up Joker with her biotics and took him out of the room. "Oh my God… Miranda, I think something is wrong with you…"_

_"SHUT IT! Joker has no right to give personal information about anything and it's mine, Garrus, her," she points at Tali, "and Liara's fault that the recording devices were still on deck one. And I thought I heard the pastor say that you were in the bell tower with Wrex, Grunt and Javik?"_

_"When the bell fell, I let out like a cat when it hears a loud noise," she explained._

**NOW**

John looked behind him to make sure no one was listening. "Oh goddamn it. I never expected that." He then turn his head back to the photos. "But there was hell in that time. Remember when we tried to get the ceremony done."

"Keelah, how can I forget that? Auntie Raan was about to go after Grunt for destroying the pastor's church with the bell. Luckily, his associate pastor used a net right when the pastor got in."

******Eight Years ago – Earth's First Church of Christ in Rio de Jairo (the ceremony)**

_"We are here to witness the love of both Commander John Ryu William Shepard and Tali'Zorah vas Normandy so they can be wedded. I will have the vows spoken to if there are no other interruptions," the pastor looks at Grunt, because it was Grunt's fault that the bell fell and it took them five hours to get the whole ceremony back on schedule. "John, you first with your vows."_

_John nodded and took a deep breath, "Tali, my love of my life. I would do anything for you. If you want me to be with you for your whole rest of your life, I will honor that. I want you to be next to me when we go through good, bad, sick, or bed ridden days. I want you to be with me because I love you so much that I would have your life happy. I will make your life happy with whatever it takes for us to have a good life and a good chance. I ask you one question and I hope you answer it in your vows: How much do you love me? I want you to be happy. We have spent time with each other. After my sister's first death from the Collector's, we admitted our love. And when the Reapers invaded and you were back with the fleet, I was thinking about you all the time. And when the Reapers were destroyed by my sister, we mourned for her and you stayed with me. When your father was presumed dead, I was with you. I want to be with you and to comfort you with anything that goes against us."_

_The pastor looks at him and shakes his head. "Okay. Tali, now yours."_

_"John, I was with you since the whole rouge Spectre named Saren. You saved my life and that made me love you. Even though we didn't admit our love on the first Normandy, I wanted to be with you. You saved me not only on that day but also when I was placed on trial for treason. You loved me with everything and I love you more. Quarians have saying, 'Honor the love with your ways to build what needs to take a fleet to complete.' And that saying means, if you love someone go with that person and with them so that you can be happy and in return, make the bondmate happy. I want to be with you and I honor what you want with me. A life on Rannoch, with a house next to the ocean. You also want to have children," she looks at Joker, who slid down his seat, with mean eyes, "but I can't give you that. But you told me that you never cared if we have children because there are ways to have children. You just love me the way I am and I love you the way you are. And I would do anything to have my seyna. I want to be with you for everything that comes. Whether its sickness or destruction. I want to be with you."_

_"Now it is time for us to get this done. Since the coming of man, Adam was alone. When God placed him in sleep, He made a woman for Adam. And then it was through God that Adam and Eve were married by God's Holy love and undisputed ways of charity. And now it is time for this two to be with each other until death do them apart," he motions James Vega to come up with the rings and places them on the table. "Do you, John, take Tali to be your wedded wife? Do you promise to love her, comfort her, honor her, keep her in sickness and in health, remaining faithful to her as long as you both will live and even in death?"_

_"I do," he said with any hesitation. He wanted to be with Tali his whole life and it was coming true._

_"And do you, Tali, take John to be your wedded husband? Do you promise to love him, comfort him, honor him, keep him in sickness and in health, remaining faithful to him as long as you both will live and even in death?"_

_"I do," she started to cry for joy when she heard him say that._

_"Is there anyone that has anything to say against this love, speak now or forever hold your peace," he waited about twenty seconds before continuing, "Then by the power of the God that created the universe, I pronounce you Man and Wife. You may kiss the bride."_

_John grabs Tali's visor and takes it off. He saw the beauty before him and then he kissed her. The whole crowd applauded while Jack, Wrex, Grunt, and Javik tried to get out without anyone noticing._

_"HEY, IT'S THEM FOUR! GET THEM! THEY BROKE THE BELL," the pastor yelled at them. Then ran after them after they heard him yell. "GET BACK HERE YOU FOUR!"_

**NOW**

"Keelah, I never seen the pastor ran that fast after those four," Shala shook her head and looked at Tali and John. "At least that you have each other like I have Ragan."

"True and I still love Tali with my heart," John looked behind him when he heard Zaal and Raela laughing at him.

"Oh, dad, you are just like that because you love mom. And dad, you got cooties," Raela said before running.

"If I had cooties, then I wouldn't have married your mother," Tali laughed at John.


	29. Chapter 24: They Are Twins

Chapter 24: They are Twins

As the sun rises from the east on Rannoch, the light starts to omit through the sky. And there, John and Raela are sitting at the backyard cliff that they are watching the sun rise. It was peaceful for both of them. A reminder that the way her father fought in the Reaper Invasion. She wanted him to live so she decided to ask him a question, "Daddy," John looks at his oldest child. "Do you still feel some pain after what happened during the Reaper Invasion?"

"Reala, I do. I lost a lot of good friends that war and I lost my sister. Legion, Thane Krois, Mordin Solus, Steven Cortex, Kelly Chambers, EDI – well her mobile platform, and a lot others."

"Can you tell me about them?"

"Raela, you are seven years old. I'm not sure that I can tell you about them right now."

"Please," she gets close to him does the puppy eye technique. "Pretty please. And don't make me add a Uild'da fruit on top of that."

"Thane Krios was a Drell assassin that helped me with the Collector base. He saved the Salarian Councillor's life. Legion was a Geth platform," Reala's eyes grew wide when she heard Geth, "that saved a lot of people during the Collector base and before the assault on Cronos Base and Earth. He gave every Geth unit free will and independence. Mordin Solus was a great professor, saved millions of lifes at the Collector Base, and escorted the remaining of my crew out of there. He was the first one that saved the Krogan race by curing the Genophage. Steven Cortex, was a great man. He was my shuttle pilot after me, James, your mother, and Liara got to the Citadel and had to give our reports about what happened on Earth and Mars. And the last person that I lost was on Virmire. Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams. My first love but that changed. I regretted every day to saving Kaiden. I don't know what else to do."

"Did you get to…," Raela starts messing with her fingers, "you know?"

"No. We didn't at all. I miss her. And if she was alive… you wouldn't be born and I would regret that because I love your mother."

"So if Ashley was alive, I wouldn't be born and you would be with her instead of mommy?"

"That is correct and I would regret it every day in life. I loved Ashley but I love your mother more because Ashley was trying to get me away from Garrus, Wrex, your mother, and Liara. And I couldn't hold on to her xenophobia because of it."

Raela tilts her head slittly, "Xenophobia?"

"Xenophobia means fear of illegals or other species."

"Okay and that's what you didn't like about her."

"Of course I hated it. I mean, you don't judge a whole species by what happened years ago. You judge the ones that caused it, not the children and behind them."

"I see. So it's like the Turians and Salarians judging the Krogan because of the Krogan Rebellions."

"Did you learn that or did you hear me say?"

"My teacher told me. Dorma'Zedlla vas Rayya told me about the Krogan Rebellions."

"I see. And I hope your brother is doing…"

"Shepard-Admiral, he have some news," John turns around and sees his Geth friend, Raphael, coming up. "Your wife is at the hospital and is about to give delivery to another Shepard child." Raela looks at her father and then looks at Raphael.

"Thank you," John pats Raphael's shoulder. "Raela please get your uncle, aunt, and your siblings." Raela then nods and heads towards the house. "And tell them to get in the skycar."

"I will dad," she said that have going about five steps away. She then runs towards the house and enters.

John walks around the house to the skycar. "Raphael," the Raphael runs after him and catches up to John, "How long till the child come in this world?"

"An hour," it's 'eyebrows' flaps raise up from behind and then go back to normal position. "We can take a short cut that will reduce the time by 65.000001%"

"So that means thirty nine minutes," Raphael looks at John with a surprised looked.

"Care to explain how you got that when I got thirty nine minutes and fifty nanoseconds."

"I don't do nanoseconds. I rounded."

"I see. Then we must hurry," Ragan and Shala come out with their children and John's four children. They then looked at the Geth while John tossed the keys to it. "I will make sure the house is safe. Updating GPA…," it starts making a clicking sound for one second, "Done."

"Get in," he ordered them. Ragan then walks towards the car's back seats and places the children in the middle while he sits close to the door that is behind the passenger's side. Shala sits right next to John.

"I hope we can make it time."

"I did the math very quickly. She has an hour to give birth. I have a short cut, thanks to Raphael, to shorten the trip by thirty nine minutes." He turns on the engine and drives towards the short cut. It took them thirty nine minutes to get to the hospital. "Alright, children. Your mother will not be able to see you until…" he heard Raela, Zaal, Rena, and Kalee moan when he said that. "Until later okay. Until then, we stay in the waiting room. I will be with her because I want to make sure that she's alright."

Ragan then walks towards the door and sees Hackett there. "Johnathan Ryu William Shepard, did you contact your father by any chance?"

"No, why?"

"Because he is here."

John walks up to the door and opens it very slowly. Hackett turns to him and looks at the door. "What are you doing here father?"

"I'm here to make sure that my men that were stationed around Rannoch didn't get killed when the bomb went off at Geth Server 5B-0D outside of Nemma. We were contacted by Admiral Gerrel to meet us there but it didn't end well."

"What do you mean?"

"Han'Gerrel was killed. He died in the blast with five of my men. The other two were alive. But right now they are trying their best to do what is required to keep them alive. Now, why are you hear with your family," Steven looks at him and doesn't see Tali, "Where's your wife?"

"She is about to deliever again."

"Johnathan Ryu William Hector Shepard," that was the first time someone used John's full name, "how many more are you going to have?"

"This will be the last one. I promise."

"It better be."

Raela, Zaal, Kalee, and Rena comes running in the building, "Grandpa."

Steven looks at John and gives him a smile, "At least you told them who I am." He kneels down to greet the three seven year olds and the six year old. "Has your father been nice to you?"

The children look at him and nod their heads. Raela then hugs Steven while Zaal grabs one of the knees. "I think he spoils us to much," they said in unity.

John laughs and walks down the hallway. The doctors and nurses give him a nod and allow him to continue. He finally comes to room 54D. He opens the door and the nurse quickly stops him. "I'm sorry sir but I've been told that no one is allowed in here unless it is the following: bondmate, doctors, nurses, or anyone that is required to have the place working with electrical problems."

"I'm Tali'Shepard's husband." The nurse looks at him and points towards the waiting room.

"I'm sorry sir but I don't trust you with that."

"Then you might belive me when I tell you that Tali'Shepard married – or bonded – with the savior of Rannoch, John'Shepard vas Rannoch." The nurse looks at him and still had his finger pointing at the waiting room. John grabs his wallet and shows the nurse who he was.

"I'm sorry about this. Please come in. I hope that you have to understand, we had a bombing and one of the Admirals was killed."

"I know and I hope that it's alright if nothing bad happens now."

The door opens and a Quarian walks in. "Okay, Mistress Shepard. Time to see if the children are coming out."

"Children," John looked at the Quarian.

"Yes, twins. Both boys." When John heard they were both boys, he fainted while the Quarian looked down at him. "Nurse, get him on the chair and have some water ready for him. He looks like he was had a problem."

After a few hours, John finally woke up. He didn't know where he was because when he fainted, his head hit the floor. He looks around the room to see if someone is there and then sees Ragan, Shala, Raela, and Tali looking straight back at him.

"About time you wake up," Ragan shook his head when Shala said that. "I was about to think you didn't care about your two children."

Ragan looks at Shala and gives her a murder stare, "Shala, if he didn't care about the children, he would have made the doctors preform an abortion."

"Don't be like that, honey. You know I was kidding," Ragan just shook his head.

"You know damn well that I don't take jokes like they are supposed to be," Ragan then walks up to John and offers his hand. "Come one. Time to name them."

"Wait… where is Zaal, Rena, Kalee and your children?"

"They are sleeping on the sofa," Ragan pointed to the sofa and John say five little bodies.

"Okay," John gets up from the chair that the doctor placed him in and walks towards Tali. "We are not having any more." Tali chuckled when she heard that.

"I don't blame you John," Tali said, "I think we have enough."

"Okay," he pauses for a second then looks at the newborns. "I think I have some names for them," Tali looks at him with wide eyes, "Gittro and Talid."

Tali laughed when she heard the last name, "Oh, Ansectors. Not Talid. Not a Turian last name for our son. Gittro I'm alright with. But Talid, no way am I calling him that. It sounds weird in my voice." She wasn't lying because when she said Talid, it sound like Tali-ed.

"Okay got any other names?"

Shala looks at John and coughs to get his attention, "I was thinking of a word that means King from the Kings. The word is samiol."

"Samiol," Tali looked at John, "I think that is a great name for him."

"I think so."


	30. Chapter 25: The Argument

Chapter 25: The Argument

Yelling is heard from downstairs from Ragan's house. John was staying there because his house was being fumigated for unsettling baterica that was released by a science research building not far from his house. All he can think is something is wrong and so he just went back to sleep. But unfortunately, a loud crash like something was thrown and shattered was heard. John quickly gets out of bed and heads down where the source of commotion is coming from. He enters the living and sees Shala and Ragan arguing.

"I'm not having this child in me Ragan," Shala was trying to look at him straight in the eyes. "I'm having an abortion."

Ragan quickly got up from his seat and looked at her with a death glare, "You have an abortion then you can get the FUCK out of my life then. Stay away from me, the children, the house, and my family. I'm didn't marry you because of this. HELL I thought you were smarter than this. But apparently not."

"Ragan, I'm sorry but we have enough children…"

Ragan walked to the door and opened it. "You have two choices: Have an abortion and forget about me and the family or we can take care of the child in a proper home. If you chose to do the abortion, then pack your things that I didn't buy you and get the FUCK OUT OF MY HOUSE!"

"Ragan Ryu Hackett, I'm not leaving this house."

"You will when I come back with the divorce papers. You want this abortion, I will divorce you. I will not allow someone to do this to my family. I though you loved me Shala," he starts crying. "I guess that whole thing of being married and what the preacher asked meant nothing to you. You are being unfaithful to me."

Shala bows her head and lets out a sigh, "You want to be like that then I guess we will get divorced."

"Shala, I'm telling your right now, you will regret it because the second you do that abortion – not only will you lose me and my respect – I will make sure that your children never see you again." Ragan walks out of the house followed by slamming the door.

Shala then looks towards John, who had his arms crossed and shaking his head. "How long have you been there," she asked. She was trying to hold in all her emotions but was failing when she saw Ragan leave.

"Long enough to see what you two were arguing about. You should have known that Ragan wouldn't allow this. And yet you would do that! Why, Shala?"

"I'm tired of having children. This is our third child and I think…"

"Let me stop you there. It's not what you think. It's what you and he are thinking. If you go against his views, he will be angered at you. Would you do the same if he went against your views?"

"I would be mad at him. But I don't understand why he hates abortion."

"Because he told me years ago, that if a child that was born without abortion, that child would save lives. Military, science, or other ways to help. And if you take that child, you are killing him but also yourself because it takes two make a child. The only child that was born without sex was Jesus Christ."

Shala then walks to the sofa and sits down. She then looks at the floor and tears start running down her cheeks. "I don't want to have another child. I want to have just two children right now…"

"Wants is something that you don't need," John uncrosses his arms and walks to the window. He sees Ragan grab some wood and breaking it with his fist. Ragan did have hands that were the four inches in the palm, so it was easy to break wood with his hands. "Shala, you have no idea what's like for him to go through this because his first wife had an abortion. He was about to divorce her until that dreaded day."

"Keelah, I didn't know. So my senya didn't see a child."

"Not one, but two. He could have had four children if his village wasn't burnt and his first wife didn't have that abortion. And then he would have six children because of married to you and had twins."

Lia and Salva walk into the room and see Shala crying. They didn't think of it until they saw their cousin in the room. Salva went to Shala's side and set her head on Shala's lap. Lia went to John and pulled on his pants. He bows down and hears her, "Where's daddy?"

John swallowed his words and closed his eyes. He didn't like it when Ragan was angered at something. "Your father is outside in the cold," John went back and stared out of the window. "Lia and Salva, why don't you go back to your rooms and rest there for a while." They nodded before leaving the living room. John waited until he heard the doors of both of their rooms closed, "Shala, you need to understand. If Ragan wants you to be with him, you have to be faithful to him. Having an abortion is not the way to go. He doesn't like the idea of having child dead before birth."

"And I understand that…" John puts his hand up to interrupt her.

"Apparently you don't because you are talking about having an abortion. If you are talking about doing an abortion, then that is like telling me that your mother wanted to have an abortion with you."

Shala got up and shook her head, "But she didn't."

"And you are still alive. Think about this, if you could have anything in your whole life what would it be?"

Shala then pondered on that for a little while. She wasn't sure how to answer that question. "I don't know."

"If you don't know, then you shouldn't have married my uncle. He loved you and wanted to be happy with you but that ended when you two talked about having your unborn have an abortion. He doesn't want that, but you do. I think it's time that you to stay away from my uncle until you come to your senses."

"I see what you mean on that. It is like a Geth unit asking 'Does this unit have a soul?' I'll talk to him."

"NO YOUR NOT! You will think about what I told you before you make my uncle's life more Hell for him. He has been through more ever since his wife and children were died right in front of him. He was poisoned by Cerberus thanks to their project called Project Titan. He died one time because of what happened with the Titan eating his brain and was brought back to life by God. And you want to talk to him after what you said to him today. I don't think so."

"Fine, I'll wait when he is calm and he comes back. Maybe if he sees me still here with nothing at the door, he would…" She turns her head and sees Ragan come in.

"Why are you still here? I thought I told you to the out," Ragan was really mad at this.

"Ragan, please. Forgive me. I was lectured by your nephew about your past and what it was to be faithful to you. I'm sorry that I brought up that I wanted to have an abortion but that changed," she looks at John, "But right now, I'm going to let you calm down so that you can be happy."

"Shala, wait," Ragan was mad but he was controlling it, "I'm sorry that I yelled at you. Forgive me. I forgive you for talking about abortion. All I wanted was a family that would be faithful to me. A family that I can return the faith to. I want to be faithful to you and everything. Forgive me if you want. I…"

Shala comes to him and kisses his cheek, "I forgave you once you said that you forgave me."

"Thank you Shala. Thank you."


	31. NEED IDEAS RIGHT NOW OR DELETE STORY

**The next chapter will have up to nine parts. Yes I know what you are think 'Nine parts?! What is wrong with you? Don't you have something else to do than have nine extra chapters installed?' The answer is clear. Yes I do, but this will require me to do some more time. So you have to wait. I am not releasing Chapter 26 parts 1 through 9 until Thanksgiving. So if you don't like that, then PM me when you have a chance. Also, I would like to hear your intake on this: Such as what the whole family (this will include Garrus, Jack, Miranda, Jacob, Grunt, Wrex, Wreav, Bakaru (Eve), Zaeed, Javik, Liara, James, Kaiden, Samantha Traynor, Joker, Samara, Kolyat, Executive Bailey (Didn't want him to be Commander when John got promoted to Admiral), EDI (Alliance made her a new mobile platform – a better one than Dr. Eva Core's body.) and Kasumi Goto's new fiancé, Suno Pawa Rabu (Translation: Snow Power Love)) does, what they eat, what they drink, how long they stay at John's beach house that is about five miles away from his house on Rannoch, what kind of surprise that should happen, and what kind of party they have. I want to have YOUR INPUT because no one had given me any ideas and I NEED IDEAS or this story will be DELETED! This is a promise: If I don't get an idea before the end of next week, the story will be deleted.**

**Okay, I may not delete the story but I need some input from the readers. This I would like all readers to give them input and I will know if you don't place an input because I can go to Read Traffic and view if there are reviews for the story from the chapter and if they don't match the amount of the chapter that is viewed, no review, no more working on the story until you give me what YOU WANT in the story. **


	32. NEWS UPDATE FOR THE STORY! PLEASE READ!

I know that there are some people that are waiting for the next chapter. Let me tell you right now that the next chapter will be released on Thursday 27th of November at 12:00 am (my time). I want you to be ready for this. If you have any questions please feel free to PM me or leave a review with a question. I will also want to get it off my chest is that for each major holiday (by major I mean it deals with no school and doesn't deal with a foreign holiday (unless you want to type a chapter of that holiday, I will be gladly to do so. Just leave a review of the holiday and when it will take place.)

Again, I'm sorry for the wait but I have plans for this. If I do this, I will make sure that I will renumber the chapters before I give out the holiday chapters. Thank you for your time.

-M4ss3ff3ctf4n


	33. DECIDED TO UPLOAD CHAPTER TODAY

Dear Readers,

I'm gladly would like to tell you that I have a decided to update the Chapter 26: Thanksgiving parts 1 through 9 today. I'm sorry that you waited so long for it and I regret not updating it on Thanksgiving day but due to uncertain unexpected problems with my family. I will be giving the Chapter around 3 pm (American time in Center America).

I hope you enjoy the chapter and respect the whole thing. I will be gladly liking to have this chapter reviewed. Remember, I will know if there are no reviews for the chapter because I can go to Manage Stories and click the story I have written (well typed to be more precise) and then go to reviews. I will know but I will not know who was reading the story. I'm sorry for the whole thing and I respect you.

The chapter after Chapter 26: Thanksgiving parts 1 through 9 is Chapter 27: Rael's Revenge and Chapter 28: The Evil Buyer (you need to read the Chapter 26: Thanksgiving part 2 to understand that part).

From the author,

M4ss3ff3ctf4n


	34. Chapter 26: Thanksgiving part 1

Chapter 26: Thanksgiving part 1

As the warm wind starts coming through the house, the sound of children laughter is heard. The smell of smoked Turkey and Ham is being cooked outside by Ragan. John is working down at the beach house. Shala is keeping the children occupied by playing their favorite game 'Varren May I'. Tali is just watching Shala play the game with the children. It was the time of the year and John finally convinced everyone that was in the 'family' to come to Rannoch to have a big Thanksgiving dinner at his beach house so the whole gang can have time together.

It has been seven years that the gang had to come see John and Tali. The last time they saw them was on the Normandy when they were dropping Wrex, Garrus, Liara, Samara, Grunt, and Miranda back to their homeworlds before John, Tali, and their three children; Zaal, Rena, and Reala, back to Rannoch. Ragan and Shala stayed on the Normandy when they got back to Rannoch. But that was eight years ago, and John wanted to have the whole gang to so he can see what they were up to. Luckily the all agreed to come. Must have been that Grunt, Wrex, and Wreav were happy that the Genophage was cured, Samara got to see her daughter and spend some time with her after the Reaper Invasion, Garrus got to see the new Primarch of Palaven and was assigned to be Primarch's assistant for War Efforts Special Tactics and Recon Protocols, or WE Spectre Protocols and that Miranda had some time to spend with her little sister, Oriana. The rest of the gang stayed with Ragan and Shala, on board the Normandy after the five drops eight years ago.

It is five days before Thanksgiving and Ragan has smoked over twenty turkeys. He knows how Garrus, Wrex, Grunt, John, himself, Armendo Bailey and Zaeed love to eat. Hell, John and Ragan had a little bet going on that if they can eat then spare to see who is the best warrior, loser eats a full turkey without any help that is not uninstalls. Ragan has won five years in a row but to John he was glad that he ate a turkey so he can go to bed earlier with Tali. But is going to change.

Shala wanted to have Ragan win the bet every year but this time, it was going to be different. She knows how Ragan never backs down from a fight and she wanted him to win because she didn't want to have another child. She is eight months pregnant right now and she loves to be with him but she fears that he might lose on 'accident' so that he can sleep with her.

A know is heard for the main door that is connected to the living room, Shala goes to it and looks through the eye hole that Ragan installed at John's house. She finds Steven with some food container and looks at the children, "Rena, Raela, Zaal, why don't you help your grandfather bring in the food," the second she said grandfather, three pairs of eyes quickly glow with enthusiasm. She opens the door and lets Steven come in.

"So where should I place the food at," he walked towards Tali, who was at the doorway to the kitchen.

"John said place it on the counter next to the vacuum that he made. It leads from this house to the beach house that is five miles away," Steven looks at her with a shocked face, "Yes, we own a beach house but we only use it for special occasions like five days from now."

"I see. Thanksgiving and all coming. I understand that," he walks in the kitchen and places the food on the counter that has a small hole. Steven then looks at the hole as it gets bigger and sucks the food in the tube. "Interesting. Might need something like this on all the ships."

Ragan comes in with a turkey that is wrapped in foil. "So I'm guessing that you brought your famous Devil Eyes with Tabasco Sauce that is Habanero."

"That and Devil Eggs with no Tabasco Sauce," Rena and Zaal come in with food and places it on the vacuum. Without a second of hesitation, the food is sucked up into the vacuum and the kids give a smile. "I also brought some spice cake and some fudge brownies with walnuts," Steven looked at Ragan with a curious face, "I shouldn't have brought them. I know you're don't like to remember what your first wife loved."

"It's not that. It's just that walnuts don't interest me anymore."

"Of course. So who's doing the meats?"

"You're looking at one of them. The others is John, Garrus, Wrex, and Samara."

"Okay, glad I asked. Because I don't trust anything Grunt might cook."

"Grunt will be bringing something," Ragan gulped when he heard Grunt and bringing something in the same sentence, "He wants to bring something that takes like part Pyjack and part Varren."

Steven laughed at that, "I'm going to try some of that."

"I'm not. I tried it before. God it's awful."

Raela comes in with a square container, which must have been the cake or the brownies. She places them on the vacuum and sees the food gone in one second. "Grandpa, what did you bring?"

"Oh food for us to eat. I brought some Devil Eggs, spice cake and brownies that are fudge with walnuts," he said. "I'm warning you right now, half the Devil Eggs have a hot spice sauce called Tabasco. So don't try to eat any of them."

She salutes him like she wants to join the military, which is understandable because all of John's family was in the military – same with Tali until it came to her. "Sir, yes, sir."

Ragan puts a smile on his face and looks at Hackett, "For the record, I didn't teach her that. Her father did."

Steven looks at him and gives a laugh, "I hope so because I hate to put you in your place in the sparing contest after the big meal."

"Remind me who came up with that. I know it was one of our ansectors, Ezio Audiotre or someone like Conner Davenport, made that."

"It was more like Edward Haytham."

'Haytham, the first assassin to have a son that became a Templar instead of an Assassin. That is so sad."

Steven looks at him and gives a soft laugh, "It might be sad but it's something that happened that we can't change unless the Salarians finished the time machine. They want to undo the part of creating the Genophage for the Turians."

"I can understand that because the Krogan have been a great help on every planet. Hell, I seen five Krogan last time I was in town protecting a building and that was about three days ago. What they have in the building is beyond me and I don't care."

"So the Krogan are not getting in trouble here, but they are getting in trouble in other parts."

Ragan looked at his oldest brother, "The Krogan that you are talking about are clones for the Blue Suns or they are part of the Blood Pack or Talon. Remember Talon accepts any species. And I ran with the Talon for five years before I joined the military life."

"Right, non-true Krogan are causing the problems."

Ragan quickly smells the air and looks out to the big two deck grill, "I got to add more coke or liquor to this meat," before he leaves he grabs a small can of coke.

Tali looks over her shoulder and sees Hackett smiling, "What are you happy about, Steven?"

"Tali, I told you to call me 'dad'. But to your question, we found out that someone survive the Reaper Invasion. Someone that was like a hamster on coffee."

Tali's eyes narrowed, "Who would that be?"

"If I told you now, it would ruin the surprise," Steven knew who the person was. He didn't want to tell anyone because he knew what the reaction would be. So he just let it go.


	35. Chapter 26: Thanksgiving part 2

Chapter 26: Thanksgiving part 2

Two days before Thanksgiving and everything was going soothingly. The turkeys are nearly done, ham done, music playlists done, everything Tali, Shala, and John did for the party done. All of Ragan did was smoked the forty-five turkeys, thirty hams, five briskets, ten ribs, and nine chickens. The food was coming and everyone that came earlier – Jack, Jacob, Brynn; Jacob's wife, Kasumi and her fiancé, Wrex, Miranda, Samara, Liara, Joker, Steven, and some of the crew of the first Normandy that survive the Collector ambush – was at apartments that Ragan and John paid with their money. The others were on their way.

Kasumi brought some Japanese-style pea salad, Jack wanted to make some but was beat when she found out over the QEC conversation with John. So instead, she brought some butternut squash casserole. Jacob and Brynn made some of their favorite food, General Tso's Chicken. Wrex brought some of his famous Tuchanka Combo – which had Varren, pyjack, and some Thresher Maw meat in it. Samara brought some old fashion pumpkin pies – she used Thessia pumpkins instead of Earth ones but it still looked delicious. Joker brought some fudge brownies with almonds – he knew that John didn't like walnuts. Liara come up with a new dish that she calls Shadow Broker Surprise. When John saw Liara's dish all he can think was something on the lines of it would be scary to eat it. Miranda didn't bring any food because she didn't have room for the equipment for the contests the males have each year – Singing, sparing, football, shooting, and others that made the women blush when they saw the muscles react. The crew that came from the first Normandy gave them different types of food like Thanksgiving Pizza – chicken, ham, and turkey – or something that was better – well in John's eyes – a recipe that Rupert made before the Collector Base called Fild'm Failme – the recipe Rupert got from an Asari cult.

It was time of the day for John to leave early and go get the beach house room ready. Tali wanted to help but John didn't want her there because he also had to fix the floor and parts of the ceiling because the pipes rusted out and broke through old building. What do you except for a building that was there for over 300 years and the Geth forgot just that one building. More of a reason why John and Tali bought it because they wanted to improve it.

Hammering is head at the beach house while Ragan is trying to get the football post ready. It was a cruel 5 hours they have been there doing repairs and making the place better for the guests. Ragan had to get some paint for the floors three hours ago while John was replacing the pipes. And when Ragan got back from the repair shed that John had about fifteen feet away from the beach house, the switched up so they can do more work and get done quicker. And they finally got nearly down until a skycar came by.

"I see you repaired this building," the young Quarian said with the window down, "I would like to buy it right now."

"Not for sell," John said without any hesitation.

"I think you didn't hear me, right now. Meaning I will do anything to get it. I don't care if you are the Hero of the Galaxy or not. I'm. Having. That. Building. RIGHT! NOW!"

Ragan looked at her and shook his head, "Alright. About that, you beat me in a sparring match you get the house. If I win, get the hell of this property," John looked at Ragan and smacked him. "Ouch."

The young Quarian looked at him and smiled, "Very well. And I will win. I want all this land on this side of the continent so that I can make a hotel for people." John turned his hand to a red fist because his land was on the cliff that she wanted also.

"Fine by me. But you won't win because you never faced an ex-Spectre that was with the N7 program," Ragan got in his battle stance. One leg out with the other on the in. Arms raised while his body was lowered to Hidden Dragon stance. "Get ready." The young Quarian got out of his skycar and got in Shaolin Fist stance.

"How many rounds, Ragan? Two out of three, three out of five," John didn't want to know the answer but he asked anyway, "One out of two?"

"One out of two is quick and easy."

"Fine," John jumps down from the ladder and looks at them, "Round One: Final Round. FIGHT," he made his voice sound like Shao Khan from Mortal Kombat.

The young Quarian tried to punch but all Ragan did was sweep him off his feet. After that, got on top and punched him three times followed by an uppercut kick. While the Quarian was in the air, Ragan then used his Biotics to pull him closer so he can do a powerful combo. Right when the Quarian came in Ragan got ready but was countered when the Quarian punched him in the groin. "Cheap shot," Ragan trying to hold the pain.

"Hey, you didn't say what the rules were," the Quarian laughed and grabs his suitcase from his car. "Now for all the land you…" Ragan then headbutted him with so much force that the Quarain was down on the ground. And by doing that the sparring match was over.

"Ragan wins," John grabs Ragan's arm and lifts it up to indicate who won.

"N-no wonder why n-no one try-try-tries to get your land. Y-you guys are crazy but since you challenged me, I can't sue you. Stupid traditions," the young Quarian then gets in the skycar and drives off the land.

John looks at Ragan and gives him a cold stare, "Don't do that again."

"Why, it was funny to see the little man learn his place. Not everyone will just back down when it comes to something like this or give in. And I'm not the type that will allow my family to lose anything," Ragan then walked back to the shed and grabbed some pipes. "Right, before you leave, I think I'm going to sleep down here because some of the pipes need to be replaced before Thanksgiving and it's going to take a while to replace them."

John shook his head and walked back to the ladder and shut it down by pressing a button, "You have to love technology nowadays. Better than grabbing both sides and slamming it. By slamming it, you might get your fingers caught if you're not careful," he was talking to himself.

"What was that, you said something," Ragan yelled from the fourth floor.

"No, just talking to myself."

"Okay, but you might want to hurry up. I told Shala I'm staying down here. But Tali would have your ass if you didn't get up there soon."

John gave a huff from his breath, "Alright. I'll see you around five tomorrow morning."

"Sure, sure, whatever. I don't care as long as you get here whenever. This is your beach house. Your rules, your house, your time and your job." Ragan was telling the truth about that. "Just make sure that you bring the tool back. I'm sick and tired of you taking the tools to your house and leaving them. Those tools cost me over seventy thousand credits to have."


	36. Chapter 26: Thanksgiving part 3

Chapter 26: Thanksgiving part 3

"Throw the ball over here," Ragan's voice was heard as John throws the football towards him. Ragan then grabs it and runs off to the end zone while Zaeed, Steven, and Garrus try to get him and Grunt was blocking them off of Ragan. Right about the time he gets to the end zone, Wrex comes up and tackles Grunt. Steven tries to tackle Ragan but too late. Touchdown was made.

John looked at Javik, James, Suno, Ragan, Bailey, and Grunt. His team was getting good at the game. He always picked Ragan and James because those two know how to run and make some tackles. John had to make a rule not to anger Ragan because some of the Titan chemical was still in him but it was slowly being destroyed. "Okay, team that was good."

He looks at the audience and sees all of them were females. He knew that the females didn't want to play a brute game that required a lot of strength in it. Espically with two Krogans, a Titan-freak, the Hero of the Galaxy, two former military – Steven and Suno – while one of them had N3 training, and turian. All John did was point at Tali and nodded his head.

"So, John, what now," Bailey wasn't that much of being for brute force on this game but with Ragan next to him, they made an unstoppable team because Bailey can run and Ragan has speed and strength on his side. "I say that I take Zaeed while Ragan get Wrex and Suno gets Steven."

"I like that plan, I second that," Suno said.

"Suno, you have to be careful with my brother. He is tricky and slippery bastard. Watashi wa hanarete Krogan kara ani o eru koto ga dekiru ka dō ka watashi wa wakarimasu."

Suno nodded while John looked at Ragan. "What did you say to Suno?"

"I said 'I'll see if I can get my brother away from the Krogan.'"

"Fint med mig."

"Don't tell me that you're speaking Dutch?"

"Yes."

Ragan shook his head and walked to where Wrex is at. He then gets in football stance and stops right in front of Wrex."

"Oh, so the human will be taking me. I though Grunt would take me," Wrex laughed, "Tell you what, I'll go easy on you."

"Don't go easy."

John gets behind Suno and looks over where the team is at. "Blue twenty-five, green sixty, red fifteen. Hut, hut, hike." Suno passes the ball to John and gets ready but is blocked by Steven.

Ragan grabs Wrex and the does a roll tackle on him. Wrex looks at Ragan with a shocked look, "Damn it. I didn't know Humans were that strong?" He gets up and tries to catch up to Ragan but gets blocked by Bailey.

John throws the ball but gets intercepted by Garrus, "Damn you Vakarian." He goes after Garrus.

Luckily Ragan and Grunt catch up to Garrus but when they tried to tackle him, Garrus quickly jumped over Grunt and then gets grabbed by Ragan on the ankle. Next thing that happens is that Garrus falls down on the grass. "Well shit, so close." He heard Ragan give a quick laugh.

"You were close but not close enough," Bailey gets there and offers to help them up. Ragan didn't grabs Baileys hand because he just jumped up. Garrus gets up the same way Ragan does. Grunt grabs Bailey's hand and is pulled up until he is on his feet.

After four hours of playing football, John's team won with sixty points while Garrus' team had fourty-eight. They exchanged handshakes and gave good words of a good game. Garrus was happy when he lost because he was watching his wife, Neretha – A female Turian that was a Cabal during the Reaper Invasion – was watching him.

"Okay, I think it's time to eat," John walked to the door. "First the elders, then the youth," he looked at the young ones that were circled around the porch. They weren't listening until Ragan whistled to at them. "Thank you uncle. Young ones, you get the food last. The elders get it first. Meaning it goes by age."

Everyone looked at Steven and gave a smile. "What," he wasn't paying attention.

"We were making a point. Wrex will go first. He is over seven hundred years old. Then Liara. Then you father."

"Okay, don't do that again."

Ragan then busted into laughter, "I'm sure that he will disobey. Then who's next."

Everyone pointed at Ragan, who gave a sigh. "You're next after him. Then Shala, then Garrus, me, Bailey, Kolyat, Neretha, Jack, Miranda, Javik – I'm not going by how long he slept – then Suno, Kasumi, Tali, and everyone else that I didn't mention find out who is older than you," John pointed out.

Suno walked up to Ragan and whispered something in his ear, "Do you think he is being carried away with this?"

"No," Ragan answered Suno's question without a doubt. "Just wait in the sparring match."

"Sparring match?"

"Yeah. Started with Edward Kenway and was passed down to this generation." Ragan gave Suno a smile. "I hope that you know how to fight because if you beat anyone, you have to face me. And I've been five year champion in the row."

Suno laughed at him, "I'm sure you are. Though I saw you play football. Pretty good but not to me."

"Will regret that because I was the first one to offer to join the N9 program," Ragan saw Suno's face in shocked mode. "Only the best of the best get in and I was the first because of my service record I had for a full year when I started the military."

"Okay, whatever you say."

Ragan and Suno walks into the beach house and sees everyone is sitting down at the table. Ragan walks towards Shala and sits next to her while Suno walks to Kasumi and sits next to his fiancée. They then looked towards John as he stands up and brings a wine glass up.

"A toast for a new day for us that we are thankful for," John said while everyone said "Cheers." He then looks at Ragan and nods to him, "Will you lead us in prayer for this."

Ragan nodded his head, "Please bow your heads and place your hands together." Everyone does that, "Heavenly Father, we come to you right now to give us thanks for the food and a new day that you have given up. We want you to know that we are thankful for everything that you have done for us. For everyone that is here, we give you everything to blessed on this table and give us what is needed to be healthy in your way. In Jesus' name, this prayer to you, Amen."

Everyone then gets out of prayer mode and looks at the food, waiting for John or someone to say something else. "Let us eat," John said.

Everyone then grabs a plate and starts taking food off the platters. Wrex got the first turkey and ripped the leg off with little effort. Ragan grabs a spoonful of Kasumi's pea salad and some of Martin Marshall's – a crew member that was part of the Second Normandy after the Collector base – fresh ham and cheese. All the rest were getting just random food.

John grabs a chicken leg and looks at Suno, "So how long have you and my cousin been together, Suno?" He wanted to know the guy a little more before something bad happened. John still remembered what happened between him and his first wife. His first wife gave him a child that he hasn't seen for nearly fourteen years and that child is now fifteen years old.

"A few years. Right after the Reaper Invasion, she was doing a heist and nearly got killed. If I hadn't join with my armor suit and glided in the window, your cousin would have died. But luckily, I came to save her," Suno takes a piece of turkey and starts chewing it. After chewing up to a paste, he swallows it, "I was called Batman because of the cape I had. When I glided, it looked like a bat wing. And they all said I got that from the comic books of the Batman came from. I thought it was useless at the time but then again, I was like Archangel," he looks at Garrus.

"So you know who I am. I'm shocked," Garrus gave a good laugh.

"I also know that Samara is a Justicar and Liara T'Soni is the Shadow Broker after her and John killed the Yagh Shadow Broker," he gave a smile.

"How do you know so much?"

"It's my job to know almost everything," Suno wasn't proud of it, "I even have some jobs offered by Aria T'Loak and the Shadow Broker. Both of them were very good people to work with as long as I get paid in credits and not false money."

Wrex gave a laugh and chuckled to himself, "You got paid false money? That is sad."

"Sadder for the person that paid me the false money because he ended up in a dog food factory. Word the wise: Don't buy any dog food that is made under the company Zakera's Café."

Wrex then leaves the table and runs out of the house. They hear him trying to stay calm. After a few minutes he comes back in, "You made… that dog food tainted. How?"

"Funny story about that."

**Eight Years ago – Zakera Café at Zakera ward on Citadel**

_A young man comes up and finds Suno at the guard reel. "Okay, so you wanted to talk to me about what?"_

_"Something about you not paying me with __**REAL **__money," Suno then gets close to the man and looks at him. _

_"Oh, shit. How did you find out?"_

_"Simple. Hot check with a few contacts of mine. You pay me real money, not false money that you made up. That was your last warning but I'm not going to have the same mistake happen again." He pushes the man down of the guard reel and hears a big machine going off. Next thing he hears is screaming as he looks down with a smile and sees his former employer is being processed into dog food. "I warned you and I didn't want to take any chances."_

**NOW**

Everyone looks at him with a shocked face and shook their heads. John then broke the silence, "Remind you not to pay you false money. I don't want to be up in dog food."


	37. Chapter 26: Thanksgiving part 4

Chapter 26: Thanksgiving part 4

After a few hours of eating, everyone was in the living room watching the big screen holovision of a new series called DreadZone. The show was made by a Shakial named Vox. And he made his own studios. Sure the series was made in the Gailma's Cradle – a galaxy that was about seventeen light years away from the Milky Way – but they still wanted to give Thanksgiving episodes to everyone because Shakial tradition is just like Human tradition. So most of the holidays that Shakial had were with the Humans. Course Shakials had nineteen months with different types of holidays that deal with Humans.

Garrus is looking at the screen and slowly shakes his head, "Some of that stuff is not even right. I mean, come on: an exterminator that is – or was – the greatest superhero is now on DreadZone."

"Next up, our next contestant: A Lombax that had puppies, chocolate, and rainbows," the holovision is heard. "Give it up for Ratchet."

Ragan then stops looking down at the floor and looks at the holovision. "Son of… I can't believe one of my old squad members is still alive."

John looks at Ragan, "Old squad member? I didn't know that you had a squad."

"It was before you went after Saren and the Geth."

Garrus looks at Ragan, "So what you're saying is that you had a squad before John?"

"You have to remember that I'm four years older than him. Sure I'm his uncle and I'm older but I don't have what it takes to lead a squad until I had more people with me."

"So who was in your squad," Shala turned her head and gave a smile.

"I had Ratchet and his little sidekick Clank. Jak – spelled with a 'k' not a 'ck'—and his little ottsel – combination of an otter and weasel – Daxter. I had some others like a Turian named Jorum Talid," John and Garrus then flinched a little when they heard Talid, "a Krogan named Werylock Ralmas, some kind of Drell assassin named Rital Mials, and a volus named Pitne For."

"What you know Pitne For?"

"Yeap. Smart asshole. Got my squad nearly killed one time. But ended that contract."

Reala looks at him and starts rubbing her neck, "So what did you do?"

"The only thing I did, threw his ass out of the airlock. He was lucky that I didn't throw it out when we were in space. It happened when it was on the Citadel."

John turns the volume up. "So tell me about Ratchet."

"Ratchet is one of the last Lombaxs alive. There are three alive. Ratchet was on Verlin when Clank came crashing down from the atmosphere. Later, stopped a Balarg name Drek. He wanted to create a new world and destroy it then repeat the process after the money got in. Then they saved other galaxies several times. The last major threat that was for the universe was when they had to beat Emperor Otto. That was their major ground breaking universe problem. The episodes you're seeing were during his time on DreadZone. He killed all the Exterminators," Garrus looked at him. "The first ones: Shellshock, Reactor, Eviscerator, and Ace Hardlight."

"So he did that. So what?"

"So what, the person that owns Vox News, DreadZone, and Vox Studios is Gleeman Vox's cousin Riata Vox."

"Okay," Zaal'Shepard shook his head, "Can we just watch the show without any conversation."

"Sure, sure," Ragan closes his eyes and imagines the good days that he had with his squad until Pinte For betrayed them.

"So what is next, John," Garrus wanted to know what would be next, but he knew it was going to be the sparring contest. "Let me guess, the sparring contests against us males."

"Why have only the males have the fun," John looked at his Turian friend. "Why not have the females have some fun in this? Except Shala because she is pregnant."

"John, don't worry about me…," Shala wanted to fight but she knew that she didn't want to risk the child.

"If you want to fight and have the child deformed or worse, be my guess," John and Ragan looked at Garrus.

"Officer Vakarian, how many times have I told you not to make people uncomfortable," Bailey shook his head towards Garrus. "You do this all the time. Even when you were hunting Saleon and then with Harkin."

"Okay. Fine. I won't do it to anyone."

"Thank you," Bailey gave a sigh of relief. He knew that Garrus was the type that made people uncomfortable when it comes to investigations. He also knew that when it comes to finding someone that was important to him – whether to kill or save – he always had a way to make the people talk when they are uncomfortable. Bailey hated to see Garrus be the C-Sec officer that Garrus' father was.

"So, what are we going to do? Who got first match," Wrex looks at Ragan with bloodlust eyes.

"Don't even try. Remember last year and Christmas that you tried to beat me but I beat you by doing the move that you love to do. Head-butting is the only way to stop a charging Krogan when it comes with enough force," Ragan laughed at that with everyone else, except Wrex, Wreav, Bakara, and Grunt. "But it was a good match though."

"Likewise, Ragan. Likewise," Wreav said. He never like Ragan after what happened when Wrex told him that Ragan was going to be the Council's bodyguard for two months. Wreav wanted Ragan to stay until death. Wreav never liked him because Ragan was forced to resign because of the Titan was getting aggressive towards the brain and that killed him five months later. But now Ragan stands right in front of Wreav.

"It was a good match, but you don't like it. You didn't want to see your brother hurt by a 'disgusting alien,'" Ragan repeated the words Wreav said about two years ago.

**A Year Ago – Rannoch**

_Cheers are heard when Wrex and Ragan are fighting in the sparring contest. Wrex made it to the final part of the challenge with Ragan and now they had to fight to see who will be this year's champion. Unfortunately to Wrex, Ragan had the upper advantage to this match. Both of them were strong but Ragan had speed on his side._

_Wrex tries to head-butt Ragan but failed when a fast punch made Wrex flinch. "Come on. You need to try harder than that," Ragan was taunting Wrex to bring in a powerful attack._

_"Hurt that disgusting alien," Wreav's voice is heard from the crowd. Everyone looks at him, stopping the match for a little while. "Oh, crap."_

_John then gets ready to punch him but failed when a kunai nearly hits Wreav's head. "Where did that come from?"_

_"Me," Ragan looked at Wreav and shook his head, "I'll make damn certain that kunai won't miss your head next time. Understood."_

_"Yes, sir," Wreav then takes the kunai and looks it over. He then sees a chain at it. After a few seconds, the chain gets straight and the kunai then flies out of the wall._

**NOW**

"You're lucky that I didn't have the take your head off for that racist slur," Ragan then walks out of the living room and into the kitchen. He then returns to the living room and shows Wreav the kunai. "You better not say anything racist to me or anyone in the room. Treat others how you want to be treated."


	38. Chapter 26: Thanksgiving part 5

Chapter 26: Thanksgiving part 5

As loud noise is heard from the metal, everything starts to come up as an arena. John then looks at everyone that is there and then looks back at the arena. "Alright, you know the rules. First ones will be fighting is Ragan and Suno. Suno wanted to see what Ragan is capable of," John then smiled at Ragan. "Go easy on him."

Kasumi then looks at her cousin and uncle, "Please go hard on him so that he can eat that full turkey." She was kidding with it came to something like this.

"Please don't go easy. I want you to put a hundred percent in the battle," Suno then walked up to Ragan. "Otherwise, I will kick your ass in front of your wife. And we don't want that."

"Says the man that is engaged with my neice," Ragan placed an ear to ear grin on his face. "I hope you're ready because I will show no mercy and remorse." Ragan then starts working on the pain nullicators. Meaning that no one will feel pain when it's set to pain is to zero.

Suno then looks at Ragan and gets in the ring. "Alright, old man. Any time you are ready, I'll be gladly to show you where you are to stay. When I'm done with you, you will wish that you never got to live again."

Ragan then jumps down and does a backflip off the rail. He then lands on his feet and biotic charges right beside Suno. "You're forgetting about something. With great power comes great responsibility and wisdom with age."

"Ha, you sound like my old CO."

"And who was that?"

"Funny you should say, it was your brother. Tough hard ass."

"He might be tough but I'm tougher than him. And I don't need to use the Titan I have in my blood." Ragan cracks his knuckles and then starts looking at John, "Put it for maximum of five rounds."

John then starts typing on the console and starts getting it ready, "Round one. FIGHT!"

Suno tries using a warp field but is deflected by Ragan's shields. Before Suno can counter the shields, Ragan throws a kunai at Suno's torso. Without thinking, Suno grabs it and pulls Ragan close but ends up getting punched in the stomach, legs, arms, and neck in that order.

"Damn it. I didn't expect that," Suno then uses a throw field but Ragan quickly jumps out of the way and does Sovereign Fist from an old friend name Snow Villiers. Suno jumps out of the way but fails when Ragan biotic charges at Suno.

"Expect the unexpected," Ragan then looked at Suno who was down on the ground but something seemed off about Suno. Ragan gets closer and sees it was a decoy. He then looks around and sees Suno coming from the air. Ragan just stood there, waiting for the right moment. Right when Suno is about to kick him, Ragan just grabs the foot and slams him down. "You yield?"

"I yield," Suno yielded from the punishment.

John then looked at Ragan and gave him a nod. "Ragan wins. Point to Ragan."

**Five hours later**

John and Ragan are in the arena looking at each other with powerful stares. It was just John versus Ragan and it was going to be tough. Ragan basically took down Suno, Wrex, Wreav, Garrus, and Steven out without any problem. John took down Bailey, Kolyat, James, Kaiden, and Grunt. It was going to be hard to find out. John had gotten two points and Ragan has got two points as well. Both of them were on the final round and it was going to determine who will win.

Ragan looked at Tali – who is going to announce what is going to happen – and make the work hard. Shala is looking at the two men that have their shirts off and showing their muscles. Kolyat is on his edge of the seat when Ragan did an Izuna Drop without any weapon.

"Round Five: Final Round. FIGHT," Tali yelled out and saw the men get to straight fighting. It was hard to see John lose five years in a row but this time, something tells her that Ragan would be losing. But it might not happen because Ragan won five years in a row. And that was just Thanksgiving. It wasn't count Christmas. But it was still to see John lose because she can then see how her husband tried to win but failed.

Ragan then grabs John by the arms but is countered when John kicks him in the stomach, making him fall down on the ground. John then gets up and grabs Ragan's leg and does a Hammer throw. Then repeats the process of Hammer throw him about six times. When he got down, then he grabs Ragan's head but stops when a sudden strike hits his back.

Ragan then grabs John's leg and throws him up in the air. About three seconds later, his hand grabs John's arm and does a sudden violent slam, head first. John the recovered from the attack and does a backflip kick, making Ragan fall in the air so that John can throw him out of the air. He does that and Ragan falls down on the ground.

Wrex then looks at what is going on and sees Ragan is getting beat. "Well, I never seen the day," he said with the deep voice. He then sees Ragan turn on the tactical cloak on, "And it is over for…" John then grabs Ragan's arms – pure luck for that part – and spins him around until he falls down on the floor.

Tali looks at everyone and sees what their expressions are. Suno wanted to beat Ragan but John did it for him. Shala was shocked how her husband lost the challenge. He did put a good fight but it was hard for Shala to see what happened. Wreav, Joker, EDI, Kolayt, and the others stand up and start cheering for John but it was short lived when Ragan sweeps John's legs. "The fight is still on," Tali asked, "But I though he was down for good."

Steven then looks at Tali, "Sorry but the rules say that if he is not hit before being getting down, the fight still is on. So if John punched Ragan before he had his tactical cloak on, John would have won but since he didn't, the fight goes on," Steven explained. "That was a rule that Conner Davenport made after he killed his father, Haytham Kennway."

Ragan then grabs John by the collar and lifts him up. But John threw a warp field on the helpless Ragan because he couldn't counter while hold John in one hand and charging his heavy melee up. Ragan is seen flying across the arena and hits the wall, which cracked. John walks up to Ragan and shakes his head, "You yield?"

"I yield. The champion is done. You win," Ragan then gets up, "If you can beat this." Ragan then uppercuts John in the air and does the Underworld Throw – learned by Ryu Hayabusa during his time in Japan. "You yield?"

"Never," John then jumps on top of Ragan and punches him down until he starts sinking on his knees then to his arms then to the face. While on the ground, Ragan says something that John doesn't hear quite well. "What was that," he lifts Ragan's head off the ground.

"I yield," Ragan closes his eyes.

Everyone then looks at John and starts cheering at him. John has beaten Ragan. The man that it took six years to beat by six people – Grunt, Kolayt, Bailey, Steven, Wrex, and now John has beat him. It was time for a new champion.

Ragan gets up and sees Tali coming up with a Turkey in front on him. "Great, now I have to eat this. Loser has to eat a turkey that the winner decides to make them eat. So what will it be, John?"

"I was think for something on the line of have sewage garbage in it. And some pig guts," John then sees Ragan try not to vomit, "But I didn't want that. I wanted to give you something that would make the former champion happy and have a good forced retirement present, a regular turkey."

Ragan then starts eating it and finishes it in ten minutes. "God, I hope I don't explode now."


	39. Chapter 26: Thanksgiving part 6

**I have permission from bojangles25 to have one of his characters recruited in my story. All I did was just changed the age of Martin Shepard. If you are not sure what I'm talking about, find bojangles25's fanfiction story called Son of Shepard. I PM him to see if I can use the character and he is getting full credit for the chapter part. I want to thank bojangles25 for allowing me to use Martin Shepard for this. And I want to thank all the people that have read the story. Thank you for tolerating with my story.**

* * *

><p>Chapter 26: Thanksgiving part 6<p>

BANG, BANG, BANG is heard on the door. A well loud knock that made everyone jump up from the living room and grab their side arms. Joker and John walked towards the door while Ragan jumps on the ceiling and crawls on it towards the door. Joker looks up and nods to Ragan so that he can get the first strike. Ragan then returned a nod and readied his N7 Eagle. John then grabs the knob and opens it slowly while getting to cover.

A man in an FBI-type suit is waiting but gets punched by Ragan before he takes one step in the house. Without reacting, he then grabs his gun and aims at Ragan. He then looks at him and salutes him. "Sorry, sir. Didn't know you were here. I am here to give Spectre John Shepard some news," the man said.

John walks up to the man and nods at him, "And you are?"

"Agent Cody Groves. I have some news for you. Three months ago, your ex-wife – Sophia JoAnn Davis-Shepard – was diagnosed with cancer. Since the treatments didn't work very well for her, she passed away this morning – or well night time here. But in her will, she placed everything in your name and your son, Martin Shepard, will be forced to stay with you until at the age of seventeen."

"Sixteen on Rannoch, if he wants to without the officials getting on to him," John knew the Quarian Law.

"Okay, anyway. Your son is in the skycar right now. He would be placed under your supervision and care until at the age of sixteen if he want to leave. But since his birthday is three days from now, he will not be able to leave until he is with you for five months, correct?"

Tali and Shala come up and looks at John, "What's going on, John?" They both looked at each other and sighed.

"Tali, remember about me talking about a little boy back on earth when I was in the hospital. That boy is my son from my first wife. We got divorced when he was three years old.

"I remember what you said about him," Tali then starts looking into the space for a few seconds then comes back to her senses. "So what is this doing with your son?"

"His mother passed away today. I'm to have him for five months," John didn't like it. He wished that it was better than this. "I just don't know what to do. Seven children to take care of. That's too…"

Tali slapped him on the head in a playful mood, "John Ryu William Hector Shepard, don't be like that. You can do anything. Remember, you did the impossible four times. Getting to Ilos, stopping Saren taking the Citadel, destroying the Collector base after getting through the Omega-4 Relay, and helping your sister destroy the Reapers. You did that and you're scare of raising seven children. I'm sure, you don't mean it."

"Unless they are asking for money and car keys. Then it is scary," Ragan placed his foot in his mouth when he heard what he said. "I'm sure that John will be fine with it. If not, then I guess that I will do something that will force him."

Tali and Shala laughed at the comment. Their own response for Ragan's wise crack was just priceless to John because he smiling. Everyone else looks at them and starts chuckling.

"May I come in? I'm sure that you need to be brief about it," Cody asked. He wasn't a demanding type person but he was the type that he will respect the answer.

"Of course," John then walks out of the living room and to the kitchen. Everyone stares at the door when they hear a loud machine noise. John pressed a button to bring a pathway that lead underground. "We can talk when we get down there."

"Of course," Cody snapped his fingers and three agents come up. "Make sure that the boy doesn't escape like last time. Last time he did, we were searching all over London."

"Sir," the three agents said in unity.

"Good," Cody then follows John. "I hope we can understand something. I don't do that much of will reading unless it deals with someone that is important like you."

"Okay, but right now, I want to know what you are doing here," John wanted to know because he had a strange feeling about this man. Something seemed familiar.

"Of course. Right," he takes his omni-tool and starts typing on it. "And this is her will, quote I have to, 'to my ex-husband, former alliance Admiral N7 trainee Jonathan Ryu William Hector Shepard, I give everything that is land, money, and anything that deals with finances to him. I also give him the right to have my son, Martian Fade Shepard, to be with him until the law of the Quarian people will also him to leave John's side.' It goes on and on about what the land is about. She didn't give anything to her family except the land that deals with on Ilium but since the Reaper Invasion, the Ilium was destroyed. So that part was taken out."

"I want to know why she wanted my son to be with me. We never saw eye to eye," John sits down in a chair that is behind a table.

"Because she left a letter in her house drawer that states everything about this will," he places the letter on the table, "Read it when you ready. I'm in no rush to leave because I want this to be clear. After all, you made her happy until the Martin was three years old."

"Okay." John takes the letter and starts reading it. After he is down, he places it down on the table and looks at Cody, "I never knew that she still had feelings for me. I mean, really. We divorced because I was being stationed everywhere in Alliance space but this just takes the cake. Telling me that she wants our son to be happy and now that he is going to be. She learned about me and Tali having children – which I want to wring her neck for spying on me." Cody laughed at that.

"So are you willing to have your son here with you because I just got into the reading the laws of the Quarians. It states in the Housing Funded Legal Actions of 2173, section 23.5 'If the person doesn't have a home that is for the whole family, the person must give up the child or family before anything else. If this is to happen, then they have a week to move out. The only way to counter this is if they expand. By expand, they can have the house and the family. If they are to choose to expand, then they have a month to expand the house.' I was reading that and I wanted to know if that you have the space for him."

"I have space for him. We have a spare room for him. My uncle was living with us because of what happened. An admiral was being a hard ass and tried to destroy the property Ragan had for his house."

"Okay," he takes his omni-tool up to his mouth, "Bring in Martin."


	40. Chapter 26: Thanksgiving part 7

Chapter 26: Thanksgiving part 7

Martin walks into the beach house and sees Garrus with Wrex, Grunt, Kolayt and Ragan. To Martin, they were just random people that were talking about war stories. Garrus then looks over his shoulder and sees the young teenager. He motions him forward, "Who are you?" Martin stayed silent. "I see your mother taught you to 'never talk to strangers.' Well, I'm not a stranger. I'm a close friend to your dad. Names Garrus Vakarian."

"Martin Shepard. And how do you know my xenophobic father," Martin didn't know that his father changed views when he meet Garrus, Wrex, and Tali on the Citadel.

"Your father is different now. Happy Thanksgiving to you, kid." Garrus then looks at Ragan and moves his eyes to him to Martin. Ragan shakes his head and rolls his eyes.

"Martin Shepard is your name, name is Ragan Ryu Hackett," Ragan offers his hand to the boy.

"Are you another of my father's friends?"

"Yes and no. I am on the in the law's eyes because I'm not really your uncle. But I am your uncle because your grandfather," Ragan points at Steven, "is him. I'm his brother. So I'm your great uncle."

"Why are you great?"

"There are many reasons why I'm great but none of them you need to know."

"Martin, you might want to see what your father is doing. And I'm sorry for your lost," Kolayt pats Martin on the shoulder.

Without thinking, Martin just looks at everyone and sees different species: Krogan, Asari, Drell, Humans, Synthetic, Turian, Quarians, and others that were with his father. Martin didn't know what was going on but he knew this was the worse Thanksgiving ever. His mother passing away but now he gets to stay with his father. John comes up with Tali and sees Martin with a shocked face, looking at them. "Dad, why are you with a suit…"

"Finish that sentence you will be hurting by your uncle. I don't want to hear you say anything about my wife."

"Your wife? I didn't know," he didn't really know but he didn't want to know.

"Tali, why don't you go with the others and talk with them. See what our children are doing okay," John then kisses Tali's cheek and she walks away.

"Children? When did you get more children? Was it not enough that I came in?"

"Martin, listen to me. Tali and I love each other."

"Funny, you are not the same father I was told about. You divorced mom because of an argument about aliens and now you are married to one."

"Martin, I love her and she loves me. I changed my views after meeting a few. Garrus Vakarian was one of them and he was a Turian that fought to make me see the error of my ways," John pauses for a second and looks at his son, "Look son, no matter what, I want you to be happy and if you don't like the person I'm with, then you can deal with it your own way."

"Okay, dad. And how many children do you have from Tali?"

"Six."

"SIX? You must have loved her because you never gave mom that much kind of love," he then jumps up, "Why did you really leave mom?"

"Because of what I had to do for you and the family but I had to work with the Alliance and was unable to be with you and her. I couldn't just pack up any time and come home. I had a life to do with the Alliance."

"You did. Hunting down Saren, getting killed by some unknown enemy, destroying the Collectors, and defeating the Reapers wasn't that much for you but it was because you didn't care about me. Never during that time, did you ever try to talk to me. You never called. Hell sometimes I thought you were dead."

John sits down at the chair and watches Cody leave the beach house, "Martin, I couldn't talk to you all the time. I wanted to but I couldn't. I was on high missions that involved me being the protagonist of the galaxy saving parts of those three years. But you were eight when it was over. And when I tried to talk to you, I just didn't find any words to say. I'm sorry for being a horrible father. I don't blame you if you want to leave once you turn sixteen – well you have to be with me for five months before you can leave."

"Dad, I don't want to leave. I don't want to ruin that. I want us to be a family. I want us to be happy and it might not happen. But please try to respect my wishes. I wanted us to have a life that you can teach me how to fish, catch a baseball, or do thing that were good. But it's too late for that."

John gets out of his chair and walks towards Martin, "It's never too late; unless I'm on the death bed."

"I see your point."

"Come on. Time to meet the full family. We had four of our friends that died during the Reaper Invasion. Thane Krios, Mordin Solus, Legion, and Ashely Williams."

"So who are this people?"

"Starting with the far side," John points at Liara, Samara, Kasumi, Suno, and Zaeed, "You have Liara T'Soni, Samara – last name unknown – then you have Kasumi Goto – cousin of mine – and Suno – fiancée of Kasumi – then Zaeed Massini – one of the greatest people with war stories. Over there, you have," Poining at Garrus, Ragan, Wrex, Kolyat, and Grunt. "I'm sure you met Garrus, Wrex, Grunt, Kolyat, and Ragan?"

"Only three of them. The Drell, Garrus, and Ragan."

"The Drell is Kolayt Krios. The Krogan with the blue-eyes is Grunt, he is tank-bred. Then the last one is Urdnot Wrex. Grunt is from the same Krogan clan with Wrex." John stops for a few seconds then points at the final group, "Miranda Lawson, Jacob Taylor, Steven Hackett, Tali – my wife – and her aunt – now my aunt due to marriage with Ragan – Shala, Jeff Moreau – aka Joker due to his jokes – and Urdnot Wreav – blood brother of Wrex – James Vega, Kaiden Alenko, and the Normandy's AI – EDI."

"Seems like you have a weird taste with the different species. So no more xenophobia from you."

"Martin, I quit being a xenophobia when I meet Garrus, Wrex, and my wife at the Citadel when we were chasing a rouge Spectre, Saren Arterius. And when I had to get Grunt, Legion, Mordin Solus, Thane Krios, and Samara during the Collector mission, I had to give them that. And when I had to defeat the Reapers, I had to side with the Batarians, Krogan, Turians, Asari, Quarians, Geth, and other races to help me retake Earth from the Reapers."

"I see what you're coming from. Being racist towards the people that is in a species that did harm has to be forgiven one way or another."

"That and plus, they fought to keep people like that racist group that hates all aliens. Pro-Human like Cerberus."

"I understand what you saying. I quess I was hard when I was about to insult your wife. I'm sorry," he bows his head and looks at the floor with wide eyes.

"I forgive you but you have to talk about this to Tali."

Martin then leaves the kitchen and moves towards Tali, he then gets behind her and waits for her to turn around. "And I told you that, Shala. John will make sure that his son has a good talking before he makes introductions with the children.

"Tali, I'm sure your husband will make sure of that," Shala then looks at Martin and gives a sigh, "Martin is behind you."

"What… I didn't know," Tali turns around and sees him shaking his head. "You're just like your father. Sneaking around without any problem."

"I want apologize for what I was about to say. Dad did talk to me about it. And I was going to regret it if dad didn't stop me."

"Martin, I see what you are meaning. I have a father like that. Rael'Zorah is the worse person I am related but he is still my father. He may hate John, but that will never change until something…" Tali then looks at Ragan who is coming over. "Hello, Ragan. I hope you have a good time with those Krogan."

"I did but you said something that got my ear," he looked at Martin and gave him the look. One eyebrow up with a murder glare. "I can see that you are telling him about someone that I didn't want to hear about. Rael was a fool and he may have fought with me at Omega but we were still brothers-in-arms."

"Only one time. He and I were after an Asari named Nassna Dantius. She got me and your father to kill two of her sisters and yet wants to tell us that it was pirates. Turns out that she was being blackmailed."

"Sounds like the time John was contracted by her to kill a sister," Tali shook her head. "I still don't know why."

"I do. She was hiding something from the Council that would start a war between the Krogan, Vorcha, and the Council. Something to do with the Vorcha trying to set nuclear weapons on Human colonies but yet not detonating them. The Krogan helped them get the weapons made and had them on Eden Prime but that ended when Saren attacked with the Geth."

"Did you succeed?"

"Fuck no. She warped us across the room we were in and she left in a shuttle. After that Aria placed a bounty on our heads until I was assigned to be back on Omega a year later to find an Alliance official."

"I see. And who was this Alliance official?"

"John Shepard's sister. You may have noticed that the casket was empty when he heard about it. There was no body because only two thing happened. Either it was on low life support system so that the armor can starts making non-oxygen into oxygen or that her body was destroyed when it entered the atmosphere. I was stationed on Omega to see if Aria had any clues. She did and that lead me to the Shadow Broker. I got some information from him and then told the Alliance that Cerberus had her body. The then told me to be the spy until something happens.

"And I stayed with Cerberus while the Illusive Man didn't know about it because I made damn certain that I covered my tracks."


	41. Chapter 26: Thanksgiving part 8

Chapter 26: Thanksgiving part 8

John, Tali, Wrex, Grunt, and Ragan are sitting outside exchanging stories of what happened during the Reaper Invasion. So far, John and Ragan were the only ones that had the best ones because everyone at the table was looking at them with faces of excitement. The one that got Wrex and Grunt the most was the one that Ragan got in a Reaper while in space and tore it open during the Battle of Earth. And Tali is just trying her hardest not to make it sound like Ragan's stories were better than John's – which was true because Ragan had the most experience in the Reaper Invasion.

"And there I was, looking down at the cliff in the Sahara Desert. I didn't know what to do but the Reaper was getting closer. I grab my sword and run towards it. I didn't think about what I was going to do. When I saw that 'eye' start glowing, I was thinking to myself that I was going to die. And then I heard a quick strike from the air. I look up and I see the Second Fleet shooting at the Reaper making it easy for me to get away from it. Of course, the base was blocked by the Reaper so I had to run under it to get there," Ragan shakes his head. "I just ran while the Second Fleet destroyed the Reaper. When I get there, they asked what happened and I told them, and these are my exact words, 'A Reaper unit fell from orbit and landed in the Sahara Desert about five kilks away from here. Second Fleet destroyed the Reaper. I just ran and never saw back.'"

Grunt and Wrex laughed their so loud that everyone at the table covered their ears. "I can't believe that you did something like Shepard," Wrex looks at Ragan, "Now I know where he gets it from."

"My bosh'tet got it from this bosh'tet," Tali pointed at Ragan, who laughed Wrex. "At least he is alive but the cost was too high."

Ragan and John knew what she was talking about. It was it brutal for them to hear that a family member died the second time and couldn't be found. John took it the hardest because it was his sister that he lost, and they were more than siblings. They were like Jak and Daxter, hero and sidekick. When Ragan learned about it, it made him more brutal towards the Reaper units that the Crucible didn't kill. Some of them were underground while others were in reinforced room with metal walls.

"I know what you mean. Jane shouldn't have died when the Harvester was trying to get out of the Reaper ways," Wrex looks a Ragan and John.

"I don't understand what you are talking about," Wrex was have a confused look on his face.

"The Alliance found out that there was a Harvester that was the main part of the Reaper units. In fact, it was the first Reaper unit that had a command signal to all the Reaper units that didn't get destroyed. Once the Crucible fired, nearly all the Reaper units were terminated. But since not all of them were, there was a command signal that was keeping the small forces alive. So he had to find them and kill it. But it turned out to be a Harvester. Jane, me and Tali, Garrus, and Javik had to find it. But it cost Jane's life when the Harvester flew into her shuttle. We destroyed it but we didn't save Jane." John looked at them and saw what they called grief.

"I'm sorry for that," Wrex and Grunt looked over their shoulder and saw Martin there. "So my aunt is dead. Did you find a body unlike last time?"

"We did and the funeral was a closed casket because of the burns all over her were sever."

"How bad were they?"

"Bad enough that skin was gone. It basically made her look like a Reaper Husk."

"I see why you don't want to talk about it dad," Martin then walks away before bumping into Raela. "Who are you?"

"Dad, why is this boy talking to me?"

"Raela, this is your full Human brother. Martin Shepard," John then looks at Tali. "What?"

"Just that you telling our daughter this might have gave her a heart attack but it didn't I'm surprised about that," Tali then looks at Raela and Martin. "I hope they don't act like something is about to go wrong."

"If that do, then I'll be the one that will punish them… military style," Ragan commented then laughed.

"Please don't," John didn't want to have them end up like him. Becoming the Butcher of Torfan, the Lion of Elysium, Murder of Cerberus, any many other names that can be reworded for Savior of the Galaxy. He didn't want his children to be like he was during his military life. He wanted them to have a nice life and wanted them to relax without having to go out and save the galaxy from a threat that can destroy the universe. He just laughed in his mind when he thought of that.

"Okay fine. I won't mess your children in the military life," Shala comes up and shakes her head at Ragan. "What did...," Shala hits Ragan's head. "Damn it! What the Hell did I do to get that?"

"You talking about getting John's children to be raised like a military madman. You let him raise the children the way he wants them raised," Shala just was upset for that.

"Shala, its fine. After all, there are times that I might need him," John put a sly smirk on his face. Then he looks at Martin. "And you are not going to go to the militia unless you stay under my wing for the next three years."

"Dad, I want to go in the military just like you because I want you to be proud of me," Martin was right about it.

"Son, you don't have to join the military to make me proud. I don't care as long as you are not going to end up like a criminal," John gave a smile to him to indicate that he still love him no matter what will happen.

"Okay dad. I'll join for helping others. I think I want to see what the military is like. And if I like it, I'll be staying until I retire."

"Just like, your grandfather, your stepmother, uncle, and aunt. All of us were in the military."

"You said aunt? I though Aunt Jane died."

"She did but I'm talking about Shala."


	42. Chapter 26: Thanksgiving part 9

Chapter 26: Thanksgiving part 9

"Son, I need to talk to you about someone," Steven's voice his heard in John's ears. To John, it must be important because Steven never got into anything that deals with people. So it has to be important for him to talk to his own son.

"Okay," John didn't want to leave his friends and family but something told him that he wanted to hear this in private. "Okay but follow me." He walks out of the room and heads to one of the bedrooms that. Steven just follows him and looks at the décor. After a while they get to the bedrooms. Steven enters the room and followed by John, locks the door. "Okay. Now we can talk into peace."

"Good because I have some good news. The scientists that were trying to find out what happened to Jane's body can bring her back alive. It took so long because the blast wave that affect the body has made the cybernetics unable to work. They are shut off and need to be replaced. Alliance will be paying everything due to her bravery with the Reaper Wars.

"As far as what the scientist have said, it is very possible to have her back but there is a slit problem. They need DNA from both parents. Since your mother is dead, I thought maybe we can get some of your DNA for both instead of having to find something that will not work."

"I find that good news," John then unlocks the door and puts his finger over his mouth. He then opens it and a staggering Ragan comes in. John quickly closes the door before someone sees what was going on.

"Wait, this is not the bathroom? Whaaaaaaat," he was lying about it. Ragan never knew what to say when it came to something like this. Getting caught on eavesdropping.

"Uncle, you can stop now. You're just horrible at lying."

"I heard the news. That's good to her that his sister – my niece – will get to live another day."

Steven looks at the former General and shakes his head, "Brother, you need to stop eavesdropping or you will get hurt one of this days."

Ragan laughs at that comment. "Good luck trying to kill me. I can dodge bullets remember."

"Right, says the former champion of the sparring contest that is held every year."

"Hardy har har," Ragan knew Steven was playing around but to Ragan, it wasn't like it was to be played about. "You know I don't get to do any RR. I never did when I was stationed on Omega or when on the MSVR Demeter during the Battle of the Citadel."

BANG, BANG, BANG! Gunshots are heard. John quickly gets out his M-78 Goliath Pistol – a new pistol that was made for him for defeating Reapers. More gunshots are heard.

"WHERE IS THAT ALIEN HUSBAND OF YOUR DAUGHTER," Rael's voice is heard from outside.

John quickly opens the door and aims the barrel at Real'Zorah's head. "Get out of my beach house or we will have a showdown."

"I don't care what you think. You exiled me, and I'm going to kill every last of your friends…," Rael stops talking when he sees Ragan. "Ragan! Shit, attack anyone near you, you kill me. How you…"

Ragan biotic charges but instead of having a head-butt, it ends with a choking hold on Rael's throat. "I told you I didn't want to see your fucking face ever again. After what you did. You're the fucking main cause why Cerberus is formed. Your stupid projects caught their attention and now you want to blame everything else but your worthless self."

"Ragan… please… I didn't...," Ragan puts more pressure on Rael's throat. "I didn't… mean anything."

"BULL SHIT! You're the main reason why I had to have Titan container on my back for five years. It was your own projects that got you into this and now, it ends."

"Titan formula was made by Jack White," Rael was trying to get some air out of the hold but Ragan just placed more pressure on it. "I don't know what you are talking about."

"You know. You don't want to tell us," John didn't like Rael but he was tempted to tell Ragan end his life it wasn't for Tali shaking in the corner of his left eye. "Ragan, don't let him live."

"Let him live, no. I'm ending his life right now," Ragan threw Rael out of the house and went after him. "I told you I would get you for what you did. I will have my revenge."

Rael looks up from the ground, "Listen to yourself, you think this is about you. No, it's only about John. No one else."

"You threaten my family, I kill you."

"Please, I'm only after John because of his stupidity towards us. He ruined the Quarian blood by having human DNA with Quarian."

"Then you are also talking to me, you jackass."

"What are you talking about?"

"Shala'Raan had two children by me. I got her pregnant."

"Then you will die. Anyone that is not a Quarian has no right to be with a Quarian unless it is an Asari."

"Shut up. I'm sick of your racist views. Without a Human, you wouldn't have the homeworld back would you?"

"You're right but I find it wrong for you two," Rael points at Ragan and John, "having sex with the Quarian women."

"Father, shut up. You just want to be a hard-ass for whatever reason you can come up with," Tali comes out of the house yelling what she said. "I hope you die by Ragan because he wants revenge on you for what you have done."

"So, Mister former-racist-Admiral, what do you say," Ragan was breathing very heavily because his rage and anger was getting to him. "Death or life?"

"I rather die before I allow more tainted blood in the Quarian life style. I will have both of you dead. I respected you Ragan," Rael turns towards John and looks at him, "And you being related to him is the worst thing until you got Shala'Raan pregnant with your abomination children."

"You know what, I hope you pay for what you say in five days because I challenge you in the old ways of the Quarians life style before the Geth drove all of you off of Rannoch. I challenge in a death match."

"I accept it. Five days for training but I hope you reliaze I can't be there if I'm still exiled."

"I work with the Amdirals and I'll talk to them about your exiled. And to be frank, I'm glad you're exiled for using your own daughter for your Project Overlord and allowing Cerberus to have all the information except the having information about your daughter being a rouge VI prototype. But I'll be glad when I kill you for your stupid actions," Ragan knees Rael, who in responses bending down in pain and agony.


	43. Chapter 27: Rael's Revenge

Chapter 27: Rael's Revenge

After five days of training and finally convinced the Admiralty Board to allow Rael to be in the Arena to fight Ragan, it was brutal to them. Ragan trained all thirty hours of the day on Rannoch. No matter what he did, he never grew tired of it. He just trained and kept on because he wanted to have Rael be killed for Rael was the one that made Project Overlord and also was working on Project Titan.

Ragan was the one that made Rael suffer on Omega by torturing him. Ragan thought that Rael was working for Nassana when she was on Omega. Rael never forgave Ragan for dragging him to a warehouse and tortured him a week until he finally confessed that he was working for the Admiralty Board to kill Nassana because she had information about the Migrant Fleet. She was going to go to Cerberus and tell them about what the Migrant Fleet was about to do to the Geth.

As Ragan walks down the contestants' hallway to the Arena, he closes his eyes and starts thinking to himself about it. Rael comes behind him and looks punches Ragan in the head. Ragan turns around and shakes his head.

"You arrogant little bastard," Ragan looked at him. "Just for that, it is time for you to die. I hope you're happy to see your daughter see you die." Rael then realized that Ragan had the whole family and friends see the fight. "And I hope you're ready to die by the man that tortured you for a week. I regret nothing. The only reason why I kept torturing you is because of your racist views. Even though I believed you for not working for Nassana, I just wanted you to pay for it."

"You believe me? How dare you keep me…," Rael then sees Ragan's fist coming up to his visor.

"I believed you and I want to have you dead."

"Screw you, alien."

Ragan walks out of the double metal doors and hears the cheer of everyone that is seating down in the audience. He then looks to see if Rael is coming out. Rael comes out and then turn around to see Ragan.

"We are here to have a battle to the death," the cheer stops when Admiral Gerrel's voice is heard. "Today we will witness the death of one of these people. Former Alliance General and N7 Shadow – first male one at least – Ragan Ryu Hackett. Or exiled former Migrant Fleet Amdiral Rael'Zorah. Thanks to his exile, he do have a ship or planet name. Any other thing you want to add before the match begins?"

Ragan steps forward, "I will offer peace right now. And if he denies it, then we will fight."

"I will not have peace with you," Rael looks at everyone. "I will fight to kill the man that tortured me."

The whole audience went silent and booed at Ragan. "At least I'm not the one that used his own daughter for a Geth project that Cerberus stole from Rael'Zorah."

"Enough! Time for you to fight to the day or we will have both of you…"

Ragan grabs Rael's neck and throws him to a wall. Rael then gets up after being thrown and starts punching. But Ragan just dodges until he sees an opening; which he grabs Rael's arm and breaks it at the elbow. "Time for you to suffer more," Ragan said with fire and venom in his eyes and voice. Ragan then jumps in the air and does a dropkick to Rael but is countered when Rael grabs it and slams Ragan on the ground.

"I think it's time to kill you," Rael slams Ragan on the ground five times then the kicks Ragan to the head. "You tortured me and I'm going to make you suffer."

Ragan takes Rael's unbroken arm, lifts him over his head and rams Rael in the wall. He then takes his head and starts bashing it until the visor breaks. He keeps on bashing Rael's head into the wall to a bloody pulp then throws Rael to the center of the Arena.

Rael then goes up to Ragan and head-butts. Rael then takes Ragan's body and knees Ragan's back so hard that a loud pop is heard. He then tosses Ragan to the side then grabs his head. He looks at Ragan's head and starts punching it until blood flows out of the mouth. But luckily, Ragan activates his Tactical cloak and kicks Rael's stomach so hard that he is flown to the audience's wall.

Ragan then walks up to Rael, who is panting and trying to stay away from him. "No more, please. No more," Rael pleas while trying to hold in the pain. But Ragan just gets closer. "Please show mercy. You have proven to that you are a warrior that will fight for anything."

"Mercy? Where was mercy when you burnt my village down to the ground? Where was it when you assaulted me on Omega when I was trying to find Nassana? Where the fuck was it you bosh'tet? It wasn't anywhere. And I will make pain come to you. Mercy is not in my dictionary," Ragan grabs Rael's neck and twists it until Rael's life leaves his body.

"Victory to Ragan Ryu Hackett," Gerrel then looks at Ragan. "Rael'Zorah's body will be buried with the ungrateful ones. No viewing, funeral, and reception. Ragan, you have proven your worth and have dealt with a traitor. For this, the Admiralty Board will be honored to have you and any of three people to join the Admiralty Board. Species will not matter on this."

"I have only two. The third one will not accept it because he will not allow it. I have chosen Tali'Shepard and Shala'Hackett. John will not accept it."

"Very well," Gerrel then motioned Shala and Tali to come up. "Tali, Shala. I hereby authorize you to be with the Admiralty Board. We are honored for both of your returns. What do you say?"

Tali looks at Ragan and sees him takes off the armor that he had on his body that was protecting his arm. "I will be honored."

Shala nods in agreement with Tali to be reinstated back in Admiralty Board. "I will be honored."

"Very well. Koris will be glad to have you two back and Ragan to be the first human to be with the Admiralty Board." Gerrel then offers his hand to Ragan, who bows in Japanese traditions. "I see you don't shake hands, but I will honor your traditions," Gerrel then bows like Ragan.


	44. Chapter 28: The Evil Buyer

Chapter 28: The Evil Buyer

Cold winds touch Rena's face has she is sitting down at the Shepard's house porch. She then hears a skycar coming up from the drive way. She looks out and sees that a Quarian is coming over. All she does is gets up and walks to the door. She quickly turns around and sees the Quarian coming out. She just slightly opens the door and starts walking into the house. "Dad, someone just came up the drive way and I never seen them," she talked in a voice that had some fear in it.

Tali looks up from the couch and sees her daughter is shaking her legs like something was about to go wrong. "Johnathan, I think our daughter called for you," she yelled out and doesn't hear him. "Johnathan Ryu William Hector Shepard, someone is here and something is not right." She then looks around and doesn't hear him. "Rena, why don't you go to your brothers and sisters, okay? I'll see…"

BANG, BANG, BANG.

She looks towards the door and sees the knob start to turn very slowly. Tali quickly grabs a weapon from under the couch and aims it at the door. "Rena, please go to your room."

"Okay mom," Rena quickly runs up the stairs and closes the door behind her. That was the sign for Tali to get up from the couch and walk towards the door.

"Coming," Tali wouldn't try to say anything. She then looks at the knob and sees it is turned all the way for the person to come in.

The door opens and the Quarian flinches when she sees a young Quarian male standing with a piece of paper. "Hello there. But I'm sorry to disrupt you right now. I would like to buy this property and your beachfront property that you had the party at on – what was it, a human holiday – Thanksgiving."

Tali then close the door, "NO! I'm not selling this property at all and neither is my husband. So I suggest you leave right now."

"Oh, did I say 'would like to buy.' I mean I have bought your property and I'm ordering you to leave the area immediately. I have found a loophole to getting your property. An admiral is not allowed to be in a home that is not outside of the city limits unless the following: children or a different species that is bonded with."

"Then you can't do anything about that because I have both."

"No you don't. Your husband is on Omega right now. I sent a letter to Aria T'Loak stating that he would love to marry her by divorcing you. And for your children…," the vile Quarian breaks the door and looks at Tali and throws a remote controlled bomb at the wall where the children's bedroom is at. "You don't have any."

"What are you talking about," Tali didn't want to know but she wanted to make sure that the children are safe.

"That bomb is not any type of bomb. That is a drill bomb that will kill anyone that is a single room. Once it explodes, everything will be gone in the room."

"YOU BOSH'TET," Tali yelled so loud that the man quickly grabs his ears and kneed down in pain.

"I was being nice. So I suggest you and your children leave the house or we will have…," the man stops talking when a gun touches his head. "Damn it."

"I suggest you leave now," a familiar voice is heard. To Tali she knew who it was. It was Ragan. "Or do I need to beat the fuck out of you like I did before Thanksgiving?"

The Quarian man looks at Ragan and gives a deep breath. "What do you think you're doing? I can sue you for having a gun against my head."

"And I should sue you for helping Rael'Zorah burn my village," Ragan knew who the people were and they are all Quarians that burnt his village.

"How did…"

"Simple. I found a way to get what I wanted by a certain person. The Shadow Broker gave me the intel and you Burtio'Guria vas Rannoch is one of them," Ragan slowly places his finger on the trigger and then looks at Tali. "And threatening my family is an automatic death sentence especial when you are dealing with a Spectre and an Admiral of the Admiralty Board."

"Ragan, please. He is trespassing on my land and kidnapped my husband," before Tali could say anything else, Ragan bashed the pistol on Burito's head.

"You did that, now you wish you never did it," Ragan then grabs the man and throws him to the skycar. "IF I EVER SEE YOU AROUND MY FAMILY, THEN I WILL KILL YOU MYSELF," he voice became demonic and sound like Harbinger. In response, the man quickly gets in the skycar and drives off – luckily the engine wasn't off when he got out and was glad that it wasn't off. Ragan then walks into the house and grabs the bomb the crazy Quarian left and crushes it in his hand.

"Thanks Ragan. I see that someone came here when I needed some help. I'm shocked that you got here very quickly before I sent a message to the authorities," Tali then walks to the couch and closes her eyes. "I hope John comes back."

"Where do you think that man took him," Ragan knew the answer but wanted to hear it from her.

"Omega."

"Fuck. Then I quess I'm going to see if some of my contacts know where he is at. Until then, don't answer the door or anything. Once I get the information, then you can if you won't."

"Okay. I'm going to check the children. Tell me when you get done," Tali runs up the stairs towards the children's bedroom. Ragan stayed down there working on some information until he his omni-tool is not heard. "Kids, are you alright."

Zaal looks up and sees Rena and Raela looking at their mother and then looks at her, "We're fine mom."

"Kids, I have some grave news. Your father is not here right now. Uncle Ragan is trying his best to get him back from Omega," she then saw the kid's looks at them sand started crying in soft sobs. Tears coming down all six of their faces. Martin was working so he didn't know about it.

Ragan comes up to the door and looks at Tali, "Good news. John is heading back here. Subject Zero is bringer him back."

"You mean Jack?"

"The only one." Ragan then looks at the children and gives a soft smile towards them. "She'll tell me more in a few seconds. I just got done with a message about thirty seconds ago."

"Uncle, what is O-mig-a," Zaal tried to sound Omega but failed at it.

"Omega is the worse place to be at. Run by crime, no law. Everything that happens there is never good," Ragan then looks at the omni-tool after a few beeps. "Jack will be here in five hours. She just got it to the Mass Relay."

"Thank you. I hope nothing happened," Tali was very protective towards everyone that she cared about. Ragan was the least of them because she knew that he can take care of himself without any guns when there are soldiers come after him. Ragan was the type that you can just give him a sword and he will cut a full gun-armed platoon without a single shot towards him.

**Five Hours later - Rannoch**

A shuttle lands on the ground where John's house is at. The door opens and Jack jumps out of the shuttle followed by John. If it wasn't for Jack, John would have been killed for trying to tell the truth about not divorcing Tali and marrying Aria. But luckily, Jack was there and knew what was going on. "You know, King of the Boy Scouts, you owe me this damn time for saving your ass... yet again."

"Oh, please Jack. How many times have I saved your ass," John was waiting for Jack to respond.

"God, I don't know the fucking amount of times. I guess... well, fuck... Getting me out of cyro on Purgatory, covering my when I had a biotic field around you, Tali, and Zaeed during the Collector base raid, getting to me and the students on Grissom Academy, and a lot other. Too many goddamn times to count."

"And you saved my ass three times. So really, you are just making it up because I saved your ass about six times."

"Sure, whatever. You sound like that uncle of yours. Crazy when it comes to a mission but strict when it comes no mission," Jack paused when she saw the house door open and Tali run towards John.

"Please tell me that whoever did this is dead," John asked. Tali and Ragan knew who did this. All Tali did was stay quiet. "Well?"

"No, the man is not dead. Ragan spared his life," Jack read Tali's body language when she heard Tali say those words.

"You know, that might be hard to believe because I read his dossier. Brutal person he is. Plus what he did with your father, Tali. Damned I be if I saw that," Jack then went back to the shuttle. "Hey, King of the Boy Scouts, don't even try to let this happen again."


	45. SORRY TO ANNOUNCE THIS

Dear readers,

I'm sorry to say or in this case type, that I have placed Shepard's Children on delay for a little while. If you have any questions, please leave a review with your question or PM me. I will see what I can come with. I have decided to do this because I want to make a series for Mass Effect. I hope you enjoy. If you are not sure what I'm talking about, please look at my profile and read the bottom entries. I do not know when I will return to Shepard's children, but I do plan to have at least one chapter updated after today, November 20, 2014, before five month period. If I don't have it at a chapter updated before a five month period, I will cancel the story. I'm so sorry for this and I hope you can forgive me

From,

M4ss3ff3ctf4n


	46. MUST READ RIGHT NOW

To all readers,

I'm glad to announce that after I complete the Beauty and the Beast story, I will start working on this story. I want you all to know that I care deeply about the stories I have written until then, I will be unable to update the story without anything. Please I have to get some ideas of what needs to happen. Thank you for your time and I will be gladly to have you know it is not permanent. I have decided not to delete any of my stories unless I get more negative reviews. *Looking at kill-phil*

From

M4ss3ff3ctf4n


	47. Chapter 29: Christmas

Chapter 29: Christmas

As the snow falls down on Rannoch, John and Tali look out of the window and see Martin and Raela playing baseball. To John, it was a good thing for them to do. Tali just thought it would be easy for them to be happy until it was time to eat and then go to bed easier for tomorrow.

Thanks to the Humans making the races together, all the races decided to give out their holidays so that they can be on the calendar. Humans wanted to be against it for the first time but that didn't stop the other races for forcing it on them. Which was a good thing because now, the Congress of the Galaxy – which replaced the Council a year ago – wanted to have all the races to be like one big family.

Zaal and his brothers and sisters are on the couch watching TV until the door opens. Shala comes in with Ragan and their two children. John looked back at them and gave a smile. Tali just kept watching her step-son and daughter outside. John was glad that everything was alright. He didn't want his family to be left alone like some other families he saw after the war.

All was nice while Ragan went to the Kitchen and got some tea for him. Shala was watching the children play with their new toys while John's children was watching TV. She looks at them and gives a sigh, "What are you watching?"

The children looked behind them and gasped when they saw Shala. "Auntie," the five children said in unity. Zaal looks at his brothers and sisters and gave a sigh.

"We were watching an old movie that father had," Zaal said while looking at John. "He told us about Christmas time and their movies back on Earth and Mindoir."

"I'm sure that nothing went wrong on that," Ragan said while walking back in the living room. "I remember the times I watched movies and sang Christmas carols for the whole neighborhood when I was little. Mom and dad would help me and my other siblings. I loved to do it but when I got that scholarship from the Alliance, that tradition broke because I left and went to the University of Japan in Tokyo."

"How long did you do it," John asked.

"Since I was old enough to hold a tune until I was seventeen," Ragan said in regret. "I shouldn't have taken it but then I wouldn't have gotten what I needed for a good life for gun modifications and engineering."

"So why did you take it," Zaal asked.

"Because I loved to make my family happy and proud of me. But that changed when Hackett and I joined the Alliance and they disowned us until I was nearly on my death bed thanks to Titan." Ragan closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "I remember what my family told me after what happened. They said, 'We regret what we did and we are sorry to see you like this. Forgive us.' So I did."

Shala looks at Ragan and then places a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sure you did well."

"What is ironic is that they didn't come to me after my village burnt down. But they came when I was on my death bed thanks to Titan when I got exposed to it. Cerberus used me like a lab rat for that and I hated that," Ragan said while bowing his head. A hint of sadness was in his tone and the family could hear it. After all, Ragan went through hell. Having a village burnt, being exposed to Titan that nearly killed him, losing his wife and two daughters, and, most importantly, his own life thanks to Cerberus. Cerberus was after him for a long time, trying to make him come back and kill him. They nearly succeeded if it wasn't for him escaping every maneuver they planned.

"I'm sorry that happened," Rena said. She was sure that nothing would hurt Ragan anymore.

"So, what is Titan exactly," Zaal asked.

"Titan is a steroid that Cerberus invited thanks to your grandfather, Rael'Zorah," Ragan said with venom. "If he didn't make it, I would be healthier but that wasn't God's plan for me. Cerberus modified it after stealing the Intel by adding a new chemical compound called Trioxide Institute Titanium Alloy Nitrogen. That is where the name Titan came from."

"Okay, I think we need to focus on the present not the past," Tali said before looking behind her. "I mean, we need to see what today has in store for us. The past is done."

"True enough," Ragan said. "I'm just glad that it is gone from my life." He looks at Shala and then sighs. "Thanks to this woman."

"Really, Ragan," Shala shook her head. "You are telling me that I made your past go away?"

Ragan was quiet for a second, "Yes." John and Tali laughed when they heard that. It was the first time that Ragan would say something like that. Shala playfully slapped his chest and gave a sigh.

Zaal and the other children shook their heads and went back doing what they were doing. Ragan chuckled when he saw their heads turn very quickly like nothing happened. It was like something else was more important to the children than to their family.

John then looked at the corner of the room and saw that the Christmas tree was having some light problems. Instead of the lights chasing each other, they were flashing like an interference was nearby. John thought of nothing about it.

"You know, we need to get those two back inside before the snow covers the door," Tali said. Reala and Martin have been playing outside for more than five hours. It was the first time that Martin saw snow in his life, so he wanted to stay out of the house and experience the winter wonderland.

"I see what you mean," John said before going to the door. "Raela, Martin. Inside now before you get frostbite."

"Coming dad," Raela said. As they walked in, they saw Ragan and Shala looking at the tree. And their brothers and sisters watching TV with Tali and Ragan's two daughters. John walks up to the tree and starts handing boxes to Ragan and Tali.

But Tali held her hand out and cleared her throat. "I have an announcement." Everyone looks at her as she tries to find the correct words to say. "Having six children is good with me but now there is another coming. I'm pregnant again." John was complete shocked. He broke that promise of not having children again.


End file.
